Pretty Baby (1978) [France]

Review: How is it that the American Zeitgeist dragged itself through the 1970s without dying of shame? There were platform shoes for white guys, coke spoons dangling from the necks of insurance execs, and Pretty Baby (1978) playing in mainstream movie houses in all fifty of the United States. If certain Attorneys Generals were to have their way, the very description of Pretty Baby’s plot would be enough to lock a person up: In Louisiana ’round about 1917, a girl is being raised in the whorehouse where her mother, Hattie, is a prostitute. That gorgeous mother is none other than Susan Sarandon, who bares her beautiful bod in more than one scene. And the innocent daughter? That’s none other than a 12-year-old Brooke Shields playing precocious Violet. Hattie decides to auction off Violet’s V-card to the highest bidder, then takes off for parts unknown, leaving the young gal to her own devices — or rather, that of an older man, played by Keith Carradine. (If you’re intrigued with the wee-Brooke angle, check out Prettty Baby: Brooke Shields (2023), a documentary about the star growing up as a sexualized adolscence.) While Pretty Baby did stir up some controversy, it also received a few impressive accolades. Director Louis Malle won the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes, and was nominated for the Palm d’Or. The film also got an Oscar nod for its music.

Cheryl Markowitz – Pretty Baby (1978)