The film is handsome, the players nearly all effective, but the story highlights are confined within a narrow range of ho-hum dramatization.
Pretty Baby
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United States · 1978
1h 50m
Director Louis Malle
Starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, Susan Sarandon, Frances Faye
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Hattie, a New Orleans prostitute, meets a photographer named Bellocq one night and, after he photographs her, he befriends her 12-year-old daughter, Violet. When Hattie skips town to get married, Violet quickly loses her innocence and focuses on reuniting with Bellocq. But a life with Bellocq becomes complicated when Violet’s mother returns to town.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Dull and lifeless.
Washington Post by Gary Arnold
Malle's most forcefull dramatic element is the feeling of rivalry and resentment that exists between mother and child without the characters being conscious of it. The script is eloquently supplied with scenes illustration this fundamental conflict and bond. [26 Apr 1978, p.B1]
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Louis Malle's Pretty Baby is a pleasant surprise: After all the controversy and scandal surrounding its production, it turns out to be a good-hearted, good-looking, quietly elegiac movie.
Users who liked this film also liked
The Fire Within
(Le Feu follet)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1963
- Director Louis Malle
- Cast Maurice Ronet, Léna Skerla, Yvonne Clech, Hubert Deschamps, Jean-Paul Moulinot, Mona Dol
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV
Guinea Pig: Devil's Experiment
(ギニーピッグ 悪魔の実験)
- ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1985
- Director Satoru Ogura
- Cast
- Genre Horror
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Devil Doll
Is it flesh or wood? Man or monster? Alive or dead?
- ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1964
- Director Lindsay Shonteff
- Cast Bryant Haliday, William Sylvester, Yvonne Romain, Sandra Dorne, Karl Stepanek, Francis de Wolff
- Genre Horror, Mystery
- Available on Fandor Amazon Channel, Amazon Video, Tubi TV
Equus
I am yours and you are mine
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1977
- Director Sidney Lumet
- Cast Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Joan Plowright, Harry Andrews, Colin Blakely, Eileen Atkins
- Genre Drama, Mystery
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Lacombe, Lucien
(Lacombe Lucien)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy, West Germany • 1974
- Director Louis Malle
- Cast Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clément, Holger Löwenadler, Therese Giehse, Stéphane Bouy, Loumi Iacobesco
- Genre Drama, War, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
Himizu
(ヒミズ)
The coming-of-age story of two teenagers struck by tragedy and disaster.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2011
- Director Sion Sono
- Cast Shota Sometani, Fumi Nikaido, Tetsu Watanabe, Taro Suwa, Setchin Kawaya, Mitsuru Fukikoshi
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats
(若い貴族たち 13階段のマキ)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1975
- Director Makoto Naito
- Cast Etsuko Shihomi, Shin'ichi Chiba, Ohara Misa, Hiroshi Nawa, Tatsuya Nanjo, Hiroshi Kondô
- Genre Action, Crime, Drama
- Available on Tubi TV, Shout! Factory TV, Plex,
Colors of Wind
(風の色)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2018
- Director Kwak Jae-yong
- Cast Yuki Furukawa, Takemi Fujii, Tomoya Ishii, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Mantaro Koichi, Yoshiko Nakada
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Saving Leningrad
(Спасти Ленинград)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia • 2019
- Director Alexey Kozlov
- Cast Mariya Melnikova, Andrey Mironov-Udalov, Gela Meskhi, Anastasiya Melnikova, Sergey Zharkov, Natalya Tkachenko
- Genre Drama, War, Action
- Available on Peacock, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, Plex,
Fearless
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada, Spain • 2020
- Director Cory Edwards
- Cast Yara Shahidi, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, Miles Robbins, Fat Joe, Amari McCoy
- Genre Family, Animation, Comedy
- Available on Netflix