Juicing Up the Pomegranate’s Image

In 1990, the director of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center found himself in a maelstrom of controversy involving seven of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs depicting gay sex and sadomasochistic acts.

After exhibiting the photographs, museum director Dennis Barrie and the Arts Center were put on trial for obscenity. Even though Barrie and the Arts Center were eventually acquitted of criminal charges, the trial generated heated debates on First Amendment rights, creative expression and public financing for the arts.

Ten years after the trial, “Dirty Pictures,” Showtime’s new movie about the conflict, ran into its own censorship problems. The irony is not lost on Barrie, who left the Arts Center in 1992 and now heads up a private company that creates museum/entertainment centers. “On every level it’s been very ironic that it gets played out again--that the content is so controversial that 10 years later a movie about it is almost censored,” he says.

Penned by Ilene Chaiken and directed by Frank Pierson (“Truman”), “Dirty Pictures” stars James Woods as Barrie; Craig T. Nelson as Sheriff Simon Leis, the man who initiated Barrie’s prosecution; and Diana Scarwid as Barrie’s wife. Interspersed within the film is commentary from “witnesses” on both sides of the issue, including conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr.; National Endowment for the Arts Chairman John Frohmeyer; author Salman Rushdie; and choreographer Bill T. Jones. Also featured are vintage interviews with Mapplethorpe.

The film, says Pierson, forces viewers to ask themselves a tough question: “Is there really room in a civil society for pictures like this?”

“We need to answer those questions,” Pierson adds.

The Motion Picture Assn. of America’s ratings board originally gave “Dirty Pictures” an NC-17 rating because of the numerous times the images in question are shown. Contractually, Showtime would not air the film in prime time with an NC-17 rating.

“I went back and took a second look at the film,” Pierson recalls. “There were two or three places where I said, ‘Wait a second. We have shown this image five times. Do we have to show it a sixth time?’ So I made tiny changes, they really amount to nothing, and sent it back with the absolute certainty in my mind they were going to rate it NC-17 again. When we sent it back I sent a four-page letter explaining what I thought about [the film]. They were convinced by the arguments. They listened.”

Controversy is nothing new to “Dirty Pictures” producer Michael Manheim. Eleven years ago, he produced the equally volatile NBC movie, “Row vs. Wade.” “My wife has said to me, a division of my company should be called ‘Hot Potato Productions.’ *”

Manheim is drawn to such subjects because they make good drama: “And part of what is interesting about this case is that both sides are equally convinced they are standing on high moral ground.

“When you look at these photographs--they are tough photographs. You can go, ‘Gee, I understand how somebody could have a problem with these photographs.’ The issue here from my standpoint is, if you weigh any photographs against the First Amendment--I don’t care what the photographs are--there is no contest,” said Manheim.

Manheim also hoped “Dirty Pictures” would right a wrong that occurred in the courtroom a decade ago. “The seven photographs were taken out of context--in isolation, not unlike pulling a chapter out of a book. So the jury was never given a context in which to evaluate this. I wanted to have the audience make up their own minds.”

It was a surreal experience for Barrie to visit the set and watch the finished product. Before the trial, he says, his universe was the museum world. “While that is a semipublic world because you have exhibitions and fund-raisers, it’s very predictable and, I don’t think, a very threatening public life,” he explains. “I’m not shy, but I didn’t expect this to be the focus of my life--that everything I knew would shift and all of my world would change.”

More than 200 Mapplethorpe pictures are seen in the film. The Mapplethorpe estate, says Pierson, was very interested in participating in the project because, “they saw the seriousness of it and how appropriate it is to the man in whose honor the estate is established.”

The estate was extremely meticulous, says Pierson, on many issues, including how the photographs were handled and hung and who had possession of them during the production.

“One of the major problems we had about the pictures was actually shooting in Canada,” says Pierson. “There was some concern that when they were shipped from New York to Toronto that some Customs agents on either side of the border might take exception and try to confiscate the pictures. What we did was use a working title, ‘The Museum Project,’ so it wouldn’t alert people to what was going on.”

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“Dirty Pictures” airs Saturday at 9 p.m. on Showtime. The network has rated it R (may be unsuitable for children younger than 17).