Director Louis Malle tackled a social taboo and made 12-year-old Brooke Shields a star with this controversial examination of child prostitution in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. Violet (Shields) is the daughter of a prostitute (Susan Sarandon) who works at one of the brothels in New Orleans' legendary red-light district, Storyville. One day photographer Ernest Bellocq (Keith Carradine) arrives at the brothel to take photos of the prostitutes and becomes fascinated with Violet, who is fast approaching her 12th birthday and a subsequent initiation into prostitution. When her mother moves to St. Louis in search of marriage and respectability, Violet determines to marry the much older Bellocq. Malle infuses the potentially lurid subject matter with a lyrical beauty that brings humanity to his characters and story, with the assistance of a sensitive script by Polly Platt and superb cinematography by Sven Nykvist.
In 1917 New Orleans, a wide-eyed but calculating child grows up with her prostitute mother in the brothels of the town's Storyville district. Inspired by E.J. Bellocq's famous photographs from the period, published as "Storyville Portraits".
One of the sources used for background information was Al Rose's book "Storyville".
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Dolby Digital Mono - French
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Associate Producer
Polly Platt: Designer/Producer/Writer
Cinematographer
Sven Nykvist: Swedish Director Of Photography/Director
Story
Louis Malle: Director, ATLANTIC CITY
Story
Polly Platt: Designer/Producer/Writer
Production Designer
Trevor Williams: Production Designer, PRETTY BABY ((1978), FUTUREWORLD
Review 1:
"...Beautifully played by both Carradine and Brooke Shields..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.261 09/01/1979
Review 2:
"...The film is handsome..."
Source: Variety
04/05/1978
Review 3:
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's a languidly decadent drama..."
Source: Total Film
p.121 05/01/2007
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