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Summary
12 year old Violet lives in a brothel with her mother, Hattie, in Storyille, the red-light
district of New Orleans. The year is 1917, a few months away from the outlawing
of prostitution and the end of Storyville. When her mother leaves the brothel to
start a respectable life, Violet remains and allows her virginity to be auctioned off
to the highest bidder. She finds herself drawn to a photographer, Bellocq, who is
taking portraits of Storyville prostitutes. Realising that she is love, the young
Violet declares her intention to marry Bellocq...
Review
With Pretty Baby, acclaimed French New Wave director Louis Malle continued one
of the dominant themes in his oeuvre, namely the corruption of young adolescents by their
environment. It follows Le
Souffle au coeur (1971), which dealt with the thorny subject of incest within
a repressed Bourgeois family setting, and Lacombe
Lucien (1974), in which a teenage boy is seduced by the idea of Nazi supremacy
during World War Two. In Pretty Baby, Malle broached the subject of child
prostitution, a taboo too far in the eyes of many censors and film critics. The
film was hugely controversial when it was released in the late 1970s, with a number of
countries demanding cuts, prevaricating over its release or simply banning it outright.
Twenty years on, it is hard to see what the fuss was about - Malle’s self-restraint is
painfully evident and whilst the film’s subject may offend some sensibilities, its bland,
lackadaisical treatment is far more likely to bore than to shock.
The film’s slow pace and Malle’s unwillingness to push the boundaries of decency too far make Pretty Baby a far from perfect cinematic work. It certainly does not stand up favourably in comparison with the director’s early achievements (and even some of his later American films). The film’s artistic strengths lie mainly in its set design and photography, which give an authentic recreation of the 1917 Storyville setting, and its pleasing ragtime score. In her first screen role, Brooke Shields is something of a revelation, her mature, charismatic presence easily eclipsing the rather lacklustre contributions from her fellow actors. Her portrayal of Violet touchingly shows how the innocence of childhood can be soiled by adult perversion. Unfortunately, the film does not allow Shields to convey the true extent of her character’s trauma and she comes across much more as a willing participant in her situation than a victim. Instead of dwelling on the destructive nature of child prostitution, Louis Malle gives a non-committal, possibly naïve, presentation of the subject in an idealised setting, with a false "happy ending" which diminishes much of the film's impact. © James Travers 2002 Write a review for this film... |
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