PRETTY BABY (1978)
Label: Imprint Collection #174
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 109 Minutes
Rating: R
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono with Optional English HOH subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1).
Director: Louis Malle
Cast: Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, Susan Sarandon, Frances Faye, Antonio Fargas, Matthew Anton, Diana Scarwid, Barbara Steele
Set during 1917 in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans, Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978) tells the controversial coming-of-age tale of 12-year-old Violet (Brooke Shields, Alice Sweet Alice), the daughter of New Orleans hooker Hattie (Susan Sarandon, The Hunger). Born into prostitution like her mother Violet is raised in whore house run by the coke-sniffing world-weary Madame Nell (Frances Faye). Gorgeously shot with a terrific ragtime soundtrack the film presents the story in a very matter of fact style, toning down what could have been a more salacious and scandalous story of a twelve-year-old girl born into prostitution, but the film presents it is a rather stately and idealized manner, but not glamorizing it, portraying the communal lifestyle of the whores and of Violet's upbringing.
Violet's mother, a gorgeous and wide-eyed Sarandon, has long dreamed of escaping the brothel lifestyle, and when the opportunity to skip town to marry a businessman from St. Louis presents itself she wastes no time, leaving Hattie behind, with promises of returning for her at some point. Hattie is elevated from child observer to child prostitute, her virginity auctioned off to a group of men bidding on the privilege of deflowering her, much to the disgust of the brothel's black piano player The Professor (Antonio Fargas, Cleopatra Jones). Violet meets an eccentric photographer named Bellocq (Keith Carradine, The Duellists) who frequents the brothel to photographs the prostitutes, he befriends the Hattie's 12-year-old daughter and she becomes obsessed with him. When her mother leaves her behind he marries her, adding another taboo on top of the theme of child prostitution. While the film is less interested in probing the salacious elements it is quite an effective period-set coming-of-age melodrama.
It takes a deft hand to portray such proactive and inherently problematic material and skirt the absolute skeeziness of it, and Malle mostly succeeds here. It certainly helps that the film is attractively shot by Ingmar Bergman longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist (The Virgin Spring), his painterly lensing immerses you in the look and feel of the period, it helps to sell that this is just the way things were back then. The key asset here is Shields' performance, she is fantastic in the role, possessing a beauty and depth that is beyond her years, the material is challenging and she was up to the task.
Audio/Video: Pretty Baby (1978) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Imprint Films in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1) sourced from a handsome new 4K scan produced by licensor Paramount Pictures. Grain looks lush throughout, the earthy tones and textures look terrific, and the source is in great shape. Audio comes by way of uncompressed English LPCM 2.0 Mono with optional English HOH subtitles, the track is clean and well-balanced, the jazz and ragtime score produced by Jerry Wexler and featuring several Jelly Role Morton compositions is full-bodied and conjures the period quite nicely.
Extras kick-off with a new Audio Commentary with film historian Kat Ellinger, she gives her usual astute and well-researched commentary, offering her opinion on the controversial film and the performances, digging into Malle's filmography, the genesis of the film as told by both Malle and his co-producer/writer Polly Platt, and the controversy created by the young Brooke Shields appearing nude in the film. We also get a The Experience of Innocence – Brooke Shields on Pretty Baby, the actress who is quite proud of the film, her recollections of making it, and making it quite clear that she never felt exploited by Malle. We get a 25-min La Vie en Gris: The Anglophone Louis Malle in Seven Films – video essay by filmmaker/film historian Daniel Kremer, and the 2-min Original Theatrical Trailer for the film.
The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a 2-sided, non-reversible sleeve of illustrated artwork, plus a slipcover with the original movie poster artwork. Both the wrap and the slipcover have numbered spines, this being #174 of the Imprint Films catalog.
Special Features:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a newly restored 4K scan by Paramount Pictures
- NEW! Audio Commentary with film historian Kat Ellinger
- NEW! The Experience of Innocence – Brooke Shields on Pretty Baby (23 min) HD
- NEW! La Vie en Gris: The Anglophone Louis Malle in Seven Films – video essay by filmmaker/film historian Daniel Kremer (25 min) HD
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
- Limited Edition slipcase on the first 1500 copies with unique artwork
Screenshots from the Imprint Films Blu-ray:
