A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 2 wins & 6 nominations total
Pat Pierre Perkins
- Ola Mae
- (as Pat Perkins)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaYears after Brooke Shields starred in the film, she studied French Literature at Princeton University. Her 1987 senior thesis, written during her final year, was entitled "The Initiation: From Innocence to Experience: The Pre-Adolescent/Adolescent Journey in the Films of Louis Malle, Pretty Baby (1978) and Lacombe, Lucien (1974)," meaning she wrote about a film in which she starred.
- GoofsIn one scene, Violet holds a plastic doll as opposed to a composite one. Plastic dolls weren't available until the late 1940s.
- Crazy creditsThe closing credits include a card that states, "With our gratitude for the priceless music of FERDINAND "JELLY ROLL" MORTON."
- Alternate versionsAgainst his own wishes UK censor James Ferman was forced to make minor edits to the original cinema version under the 1978 Protection of Children Act, and pubic hair was optically airbrushed onto a scene where Brooke Shields is sitting with her legs slightly spread so that 'the actual cleft was not visible'. A further cut was also made to remove a very brief shot of her standing up in a bath. The edits were fully waived for the 1987 video release.
- ConnectionsEdited into Chop Suey (2001)
- SoundtracksTiger Rag
(uncredited)
Written by Edwin B. Edwards, Nick LaRocca, Tony Sbarbaro, Henry Ragas and Larry Shields
Performed by Antonio Fargas
Featured review
Beautiful, intelligent, evocative
Louis Malle did an amazing job of portraying the Storyville life (red light district), and the lives of the women caught up in it. He gets the finest work out of his cast, and demonstrates what it makes him a master filmmaker: not someone who just makes movies to impress other directors, but someone who touches an audience.
He begins and ends the film with the camera slowly closing in on the wide eyes of its child-lead, making you wonder how her life will proceed, having seen what she's seen. It makes you wonder whether marriage, in those times, was any different for a woman than prostitution. Mostly, you have to wonder how Violet could adapt to normal life, with the strange perspective she's had on it so far.
The petulance and "spoiled"ness described in the review below, are merely her childishness, to illustrate that she is an ordinary child in bizarre circumstances. For those not carried away by Shields' appearance, this made the film very poignant -- this child doesn't even know that there is any other way to live.
And the viewer can put away concerns for Shields herself: the nude scenes were done by a body-double, despite what is listed in the "trivia" section of this listing. (I know someone who later worked with the body double.)
He begins and ends the film with the camera slowly closing in on the wide eyes of its child-lead, making you wonder how her life will proceed, having seen what she's seen. It makes you wonder whether marriage, in those times, was any different for a woman than prostitution. Mostly, you have to wonder how Violet could adapt to normal life, with the strange perspective she's had on it so far.
The petulance and "spoiled"ness described in the review below, are merely her childishness, to illustrate that she is an ordinary child in bizarre circumstances. For those not carried away by Shields' appearance, this made the film very poignant -- this child doesn't even know that there is any other way to live.
And the viewer can put away concerns for Shields herself: the nude scenes were done by a body-double, despite what is listed in the "trivia" section of this listing. (I know someone who later worked with the body double.)
helpful•2512
- dragonfly77
- Aug 17, 2004
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $5,786,368
- Gross worldwide
- $5,786,368
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