Pretty Baby
by Louis Malle
List Price:
Our Price: $9.99
You Save: $4.99 (33%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $7.43 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Antonio Fargas, Brooke Shields, Frances Faye, Keith Carradine, Susan SarandonDirector: Louis Malle
Brand: Paramount
Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist
Producer: Louis Malle
Writer: Louis Malle
Editor: Suzanne Fenn
Producer: Polly Platt
Writer: Polly Platt
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Pretty Baby
DVD Review: Louie Was Louie
Summary: 5 Stars
This week I purchased and viewed Louis Malle's movie "Pretty Baby". I have been viewing all of Malle's movies, next his documentaries.
I learned three things from "Pretty Baby":
1. A whore (I hate that name) can run a successful business: Madame Nell The Whorehouse Owner,
2. It is not only OK but good to fall in love with and bed an underage person: Ernest J. Bellocq The Photographer,
3. You endorse the two above positions our Christian Western Culture Do-Gooder-Know -It- All-No-Nothing's with their overwhelming resources, far reaching organizations, and laws will crush you telling you it is you that is arrogant and stupid, enjoy your lifetime sentence and shame.
I once saw Candice Bergen the wife of the Late Louis Malle asked in an interview what she thought about Louis' movie subjects and the views he expressed. Her answer was, "Louie was Louie".
DVD Review: 2.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 3 Stars
The Bottom Line:
A movie set in a brothel (or directed by Louis Malle) can never be boring, but Pretty Baby doesn't really have a plot or characters interesting enough to drive a film; an interesting failure perhaps, but a failure nonetheless.
DVD Review: A work of art
Summary: 5 Stars
Very few movies are truly works of art. This is one of them. There are no explosions that throw bodies through the air, no sensational car crashes, no severed human limbs. Rather there is a plot that unfolds on its own good time, well drawn characters, excellently written dialogue, perfect atmosphere, and gorgeous photography.
Still, I understand why some might find the film objectionable. There is nudity, even nudity of a pubescent girl. There is open talk of sex. And some quasi moralists are more offended by that than by graphic violence. Sex, of course, is part of life and is legal, but it must not be shown or suggested very clearly. Murder, on the other hand, is illegal but is shown every night on TV with little protest from the moralists.
The acting here is seamless. Susan Sarandon gives her best performance, as does Brook Shields. But the performance that I found most startling was that of the bordello madame.
There was an area of New Orleans called Storyville, for some 20 years, where prostitution was confined, ending about World War I. That much of the plot is true. And the photographer Bellocq existed; some of his art has survived. But he didn't look anything like the character in this film, or so we are led to believe from descriptions of him.
I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. There is nothing I've seen like it. It is truly an art film.
DVD Review: Good
Summary: 5 Stars
Every thing arrived in good order and in good time
I could not confirm that I am over 13 because the check mark didn't work this time I confer now that I am fifty years older than thirteen.
DVD Review: Brooke's forgotten Lolita role
Summary: 4 Stars
Girl child stars have been used as either virginal beings or Lolita. Brooke Shield's mom knew what to use with Brooke when she was just such a child star. While these days we see Lolita more in the music visual genre (ex. Britney Spears), Brooke was one of the sexiest young girls ever to grace the silver screen. While more famous for the nearly nude scenes in Blue Lagoon, this was a movie that has since fallen into the slush pile but had her reputation solidified as Lolita.
Brooke is a twelve year old girl whose mother, Susan Sarandon, runs a brothel in New Orleans around the turn of the twentieth century. As Brooke is turning twelve, she is ready to be sold as a baby prostitute in her mother's brothel. Brooke rarely dresses in a provacative way, she wears make up with the terrible heavy hand that only a twelve year old can apply to her own face. She's cute, sweet, innocent, and childlike. What man wouldn't bid on her virginity? *Shudder*
It was more of the thought that things like this really happen in the world that made us think. And to think that Brooke herself was being sold to the highest bidder to star in a movie about this is what made us cluck our tongues. What a horror story.
But it worked for Brooke and her mom. Unlike her counterpart child stars who would fall apart from the stereotypical child star fast life, Brooke grew up to be a well adjusted, well educated, and very successful adult. She is the exception, but there are hundreds of others out there who are not so lucky, really living this hideous life. That's the real horror story.
Description of Pretty Baby
A prostitutes daughter intrigues a photographer in the red-light district of 1917 new orleans. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/24/2004 Starring: Brooke Shields Barbara Steele Run time: 109 minutes Rating: R Director: Louis MalleA semi-scandal upon its release in 1978, this Louis Malle film is set in a turn-of-the-century, New Orleans bordello and focuses on a girl named Violet (then-child actress Brooke Shields) whose imminent twelfth birthday signals her "readiness" to become a career prostitute. Typical of Malle, the outwardly forbidden nature of the story and relationships within are morally obscured by the immediate experiences and unqualified urges of the characters. The little heroine brings a distinctly youthful and innocent view to the milieu, and the introduction of a photographer (Keith Carradine)--who eventually marries Violet--in the brothel carries the suggestion that there is art and beauty to be explored there. Susan Sarandon is beguiling as Violet's mother, who seems to unfold in the cameraman's presence. The film moves a little stiffly, a little slowly, possibly from a heavy emphasis on period art direction and Sven Nykvist's moody if gorgeous photography. --Tom Keogh
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Frost/ NixonUniversal; Release date: 2009-04-21; DVD
Best price: $11.39
Price in other shops:
Lost in AustenImage Entertainment; Release date: 2009-04-14; DVD
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops:
AustraliaTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-03-03; DVD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
DoubtRelease date: 2009-04-07; DVD
Best price: $14.43
Price in other shops:
True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series)Release date: 2009-05-19; DVD
Best price: $38.99
Price in other shops:
FireproofSony; Release date: 2009-01-27; DVD
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
The ReaderGenius; Release date: 2009-04-14; DVD
Best price: $12.30
Price in other shops:
The WrestlerTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-04-21; DVD
Best price: $11.49
Price in other shops:
Marley and Me (Single-Disc Edition)Twentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $10.55
Price in other shops:
Slumdog MillionaireTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $10.40
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
CashbackMAGNOLIA HOME ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2007-07-24; DVD
Best price: $5.27
Price in other shops:
Little LipsRelease date: 2007-09-18; DVD
Best price: $15.91
Price in other shops:
A Summer in Saint TropezRelease date: 2007-03-20; DVD
Best price: $15.72
Price in other shops:
Lie With MeTHINKFILM LLC; Release date: 2006-02-14; DVD
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
Drive-In Cult Classics - 8 Movie SetBCI; Release date: 2008-02-05; DVD
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
The Blue Lagoon and Return to the Blue Lagoon (Double Feature)Sony; Release date: 2005-02-01; DVD
Best price: $6.92
Price in other shops:
AngelaRelease date: 2002-11-26; DVD
Best price: $14.59
Price in other shops:
The Blue Lagoon (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 1999-10-05; DVD
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
The LoverRelease date: 2001-12-11; DVD
Best price: $6.65
Price in other shops:
The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)Release date: 2004-07-13; DVD
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops: