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) is a photographer 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 curiosity and naive coquettishness. Malle's level-headed treatment of this controversial theme and exceptional performances by the entire cast (especially Susan Sarandon as Violet's prostitute mother) makes Pretty Baby a must-see for all serious film fans.