Monday, December 06, 2004

After Portman

Regarding my quasi-review of Closer last Friday, a number of people have written in. One reader directs us to an early pedophilia chic movie:

In 1978, Louis Malle (the guy who liked to make movies about incest, too) directed Pretty Baby starring a then 13-year-old Brooke Shields--who played the pre -pubescent daughter of a prostitute, and who is 'bought' by an adult man.. (played by Keith Carradine, I believe). Thus was the imprimateur of the artistic elite stamped on the pedophile. Like a break in the dike, the pre pubescent girl became all the rage on the streets and even in strip bars. Nice.


And how I did I manage to ignore Larry Clark's oeuvre? He deals almost exclusively in young-teen sex.

1 comment:

Jonathan Rowe said...

Surprised you didn't mention Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver....

On another note, kudos to the WS for running this piece which contradicts their original "pedophilia chic" articles that suggested that this is almost entirely or even primarily a homosexual phenomenon.

But, what you and Eberstadt write about certainly isn't a "chic" phenomenon.

Look for a longer blogpost of mine on this issue.