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Friday, November 18, 2022

Pretty Baby (1978)

Set in the New Orleans Red Light district in 1917, a young child (Brooke Shields) lives in a brothel where her mother (Susan Sarandon) works as a prostitute. Although still a child, it's inevitable that she will follow in her mother's footsteps. Directed by Louis Malle (MURMUR OF THE HEART), this is a film that could never be made today. If it was, the lead would never be played by an 11 year old actress (Shields' age at the time). They would probably cast a 16 year old actress or an 18 year old who looked 16 which destroys what the film is about. A child (not a teenage) prostitute maintaining her innocence in a sordid surrounding until the reality forces her eyes open. Like the child Elizabeth Taylor, Shields has a woman's face on a child's body which is disconcerting. The part doesn't require Shields to act so much as let natural innocence shine through. It's an uncomfortable film to sit through but that's the point, we should be uncomfortable. Bourgeois minds (like gossip columnist Rona Barrett) attacked the film as child pornography when it opened but today, it stands proudly next to Malle's best films. Malle has always had a penchant for the darker aspects of childhood and adolescence (AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS, LACOMBE LUCIEN, MURMUR OF THE HEART) and PRETTY BABY may be his darkest. Thumbs up for Sven Nykvist's superb precise lighting and cinematography. With Keith Carradine, Barbara Steele, Diana Scarwid, Antonio Fargas, Mae Mercer and as the brothel's madam, cabaret singer Frances Faye.

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3 comments:

  1. Mike's Movie RoomNovember 19, 2022 at 12:47 AM

    When I saw this in the theater in 1978, I almost jumped out of my seat when Barbara Steele's name appeared onscreen. At the time, I didn't know all that much about her beyond a few 1960's horror films. I thought she had gone into retirement, had twelve kids, or had perhaps been exiled to some remote island, imprisoned in a dark, dank dungeon. Seeing her show up in this blew me away and sparked a lifelong fascination with her life and career. Beyond the Steele factor, Pretty Baby is an impressive film. Downbeat and depressing, but well done. You used the word "uncomfortable", and I think that's the best way to describe it. It's hard not to be uncomfortably focused on Shields' beauty, while at the same time hoping someone will come along and rescue her. You make an apt comparison to the young Elizabeth Taylor. I have this film in my collection because of Steele and I rewatch it occasionally just to see her. But the unease I feel for the subject matter never goes away.

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    Replies
    1. The CinemaScope CatNovember 19, 2022 at 9:42 AM

      I recall an interview with Steele in which she said most of her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

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    2. Mike's Movie RoomNovember 20, 2022 at 12:09 AM

      Yeah, the whole project was a negative experience for her. I think it was the end of her long friendship with Louis Malle.

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