Too Many Pieces

Revived by several companies, the forgettable title TOO MANY PIECES has the feel of a bigger deal project than what’s been preserved for posterity. New York grinder gets brownie points for being offbeat but I wouldn’t call it experimental.Story is a familiar one (happens fairly often in real life, especially in NYC): a museum getting in hot water due to its exhibit of Potter’s erotic slide show (memories of Mapplethorpe come to mind, occurring many years later). The show also includes interactive art, hardly permissible at MoMA or BAM but more likely at a house of ill repute.After some highly explicit closeups and content involving bondage and mixed-combo action, a big surprise occurs when a huge-breasted woman (on the level of Candy Kane, but not attractive) is humped from behind, and in the next scene she appears prim and proper as the chair of the museum’s board of directors!Potter, wearing a hippie wig, makes a personal statement before the board, defending his explicit art as a slice of life. The board members, including Bobby Astyr, then have an orgy and salute the artist at a cocktail party, while a pirated Les McCann jazz album is playing on the soundtrack. This finale perhaps revealed a pretentious if far from talented pornographer behind the camera – it reminded me of a similar scene in Bertolt Brecht’s play BAAL, though dirtied-for-porn in this version.