I wouldn't say that Pretty Baby, directed by Louis Malle, has the overall audacity of the main art-house European-directed sexual trip of the 70s, Last Tango in Paris, but it comes close, very close. It's a scathing, unflinching look at the downtrodden women of a 1920s whorehouse in New Orleans. What's most shocking of all, and what Malle understands about such subject matter, is that the best approach with this material is truthful, and to not be exploitive in the sense of manipulative characters (situations are another thing). There's really not much in way of it going through anything specific in being stylized. If anything, as I recall, Malle's style here is to try and not seem apparent much, if that's possible, with a very controlled sense of pacing and how scenes should move. The implications raised in the picture are the sort that would probably get shot down in flames by the 'Religious Right, though mostly around the Brooke Shields character.<br /><br />To say that it's not perhaps a masterpiece is not off the mark. But it's an important work nonetheless, and one that is really hard to forget or ignore once finished. Shields plays the daughter of a working-prostitute, played by Susan Sarandon with total class and southern finesse with the men, but never too un-wise around her daughter. It's the time of jazz, at least jazz coming into a much greater bloom, and sex and general decadence is right there for the taking in such an environment that the 'pretty baby' of the title resides. She's used to it all though, and Shields plays this character with total bravery- I almost wonder how much she was told of it all, and what she brought as intuition or having to just know the state of mind of her all-too-young character. Malle doesn't keep things totally helpless, as he has a photographer, played by Keith Carradine. He's probably the most level-headed and right-minded of any of the male characters (aside maybe from the band members who just don't take part in any shenanigans). But then comes the problem of morals- Sarandon isn't the one who falls for Carradine, but Shields really. But is it really love, or affection, or just the possibility of leaving he house?<br /><br />The most controversial part of all of this comes down to this really- underage sex, or rather a form of twisted, really non-consensual sex that ends up just skimming the line of bad taste. But it is in bad taste to show subject matter like this? It's a tale of perversion, and how psychology ends up getting right into the cross-hairs of it, so such material should be up on the storyline. What's interesting is to see the 'breaking the virgin' part takes time to unfold, and how it does, and how ugly it all becomes the further it goes along. Shields plays it right though, and her range of emotions for the character is actually stunning, and almost makes Sarandon keep up with what's going on. There's a heap load of nudity overall, including a hot bit with Sarandon and Carradine, but really Malle is after the whole insulated world of this whorehouse, and how being true to oneself ends up clashing with the un-yielding mind-set of those coming in with a wad of bills and a set goal. It skids with being cringe-worthy, and I have a very distinct memory of probably cringing at one point. It's not great, but it's really memorable in the ways that matter. A-