Pretty Baby (1978 film)

Pretty Baby is a 1978 American historical fiction and drama film directed by Louis Malle, and starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, and Susan Sarandon. The screenplay was written by Polly Platt. The plot focuses on a 12yearold prostitute in the redlight district of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.

In 1917, during the last months of legal prostitution in Storyville, the redlight district of New Orleans, Louisiana, Hattie is a prostitute working at an elegant brothel run by the elderly, cocainesniffing Madame Nell. Hattie has given birth to a baby boy and has a 12yearold daughter, Violet, who lives in the house. When photographer Ernest J. Bellocq comes with his camera, Hattie and Violet are the only people awake. He asks to be allowed to take photographs of the women. Madame Nell agrees only after he offers to pay.Bellocq becomes a fixture in the brothel, photographing the prostitutes, mostly Hattie. His activities fascinate Violet, though she believes he is falling in love with her mother, which makes her jealous. Violet is a restless child, frustrated by the long, precise process Bellocq must go through to pose and take pictures. ........

Source: Wikipedia