"Scandal!" yelled the moralists of the time about the under-age-sex theme in this depiction of brothel life in 1917 New Orleans from director Louis Malle. Brooke Shields was barely a teenager when she starred as the girl awaiting her 12th birthday - and the official loss of her virginity - in the bordello where she lives with her prostitute mother (Susan Sarandon). Keith Carradine plays the photographer who is attracted to the girl and whose candid camera strips the romance from her naive view of life with the women who are the only family she's got. Yet, despite its notoriety, this period drama is cosier than might have been expected, with Malle and cinematographer Sven Nykvist treating a difficult subject with sensitivity.

In 1917 New Orleans, a 12-year-old girl is raised in a brothel by her prostitute mother.