Pretty Baby (1978 Film) - Content and Rating

Content and Rating

Pretty Baby received an R rating in the U.S., an 18 rating in the U.K., and an R18+ rating in Australia, for nudity and sexual content. Continuing controversy over Shields' nude scenes resulted in the film being banned in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan. Gossip columnist Rona Barrett called the film "child pornography," and director Louis Malle allegedly was portrayed as a "combination of Lolita's Humbert Humbert and controversial director Roman Polanski".

In addition to the issue of child prostitution, the scenes involving a nude 12-year-old Brooke Shields were controversial. As a result, the original 109-minute film was edited to 106 minutes in some releases. The full 109-minute version is available on DVD. However, all existing DVD versions are censored by reframing: zooming forward to show less of the scene than the cinema or VHS versions. This was done whenever Shields is completely nude to avoid showing her pubic area or buttocks. The properly framed version circulates online, but this version is sourced from either TV broadcasts or the Laserdisc, and the quality is significantly lower than on the DVD.