The film was released theatrically in the United States in April 1978, and screened at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or and won the Technical Grand Prize. Filming took place on location in New Orleans in the spring of 1977. The project marked Malle's first American film production, as his previous works had been produced in his native France.
Its title is derived from the Tony Jackson song of the same name, which is used in the soundtrack. The film is based on the true account of a young girl who was sexually exploited by being forced into prostitution by her mother, which was recounted in historian Al Rose's 1974 book Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District, as well as the life of photographer Ernest Bellocq, who photographed various New Orleans prostitutes in the early-twentieth century. Barbara Steele, Diana Scarwid, and Antonio Fargas appear in supporting roles.
Set in 1917, it focuses on a 12-year-old girl being raised in a brothel in the Storyville red-light district of New Orleans by her prostitute mother.
Pretty Baby is a 1978 American historical drama film directed by Louis Malle, written by Polly Platt, and starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, and Susan Sarandon.
