United States

Internationally-acclaimed director Louis Malle has taken a taboo subject — child prostitution — and has created in Pretty Baby a film of humanity and beauty. E. J. Bellocq (Keith Carradine) was a pho- tographer obsessed with the prostitutes in New Orleans' red-light district. Violet (12-year-old Brooke Shields), a young girl in 1917. bewitches Carradine with her curious naive coquettishness. Malle's level-headed treatment of controversial themes, his protean talents, and varied cinematic fare offer consistent rewards for the film-goer.