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. 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, and who eventually becomes a child prostitute herself. Although the film was mostly praised by critics, it caused significant controversy due to its depiction of child prostitution and the on-screen nudity of Shields, who was 12 years old at the time of filming.