05/03/2024 - Just how much truth is in this series “inspired by” the life of Rocco Siffredi is unclear, but Alessandro Borghi is spectacular as the Italian Stallion

Alessandro Borghi (centre) in Supersex (© Netflix)

It was perhaps inevitable that when the time came to tell the story of Rocco Siffredi, one of the most famous porn stars of this and the last century, it would be done in a grandiose and highly dramatic style, rather than as a realistic drama about the ups and downs of a man finding his way in a controversial profession still shrouded in a lot of mystery. The Netflix seven-episode series Supersex, three episodes of which premiered at the 74th Berlinale before the show’s worldwide release on the platform on Wednesday 6 March, is a little like Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis if it was about the king of porn: a stylised, condensed, and totally subjective retelling of a somewhat contested and largely unverifiable story, made with the involvement of the concerned parties. If it is the objective truth you seek, you will probably only get a flavour of it here. 

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Working in collaboration with Siffredi himself, creator Francesca Manieri (Luna Nera [+see also:
series review
series profile], We Are Who We Are [+see also:
series review
series profile]) crafts an tale full of ominous connections, coincidences, foreshadowing and premonitions; everything that happens to Rocco is always deeply meaningful, each event another plot point in his coming-of-age journey (no pun intended). We begin at the end of that story when Siffredi, by this point a worldwide superstar, announces out of the blue at a sex convention in 2004 that he is retiring from porn. A publicity stunt this is not: the performer’s shocking decision is prompted by visions of a supposedly dead man, his brother Tommaso (Adriano Giannini). On his way to his hotel room, a hostess asks the distressed Rocco not to retire just yet — she came to Paris for the express purpose of having sex with him. And so they do, in the hotel corridor, under the eyes and cheers of assembled guests, Rocco angrily giving the audience what they want one last time. 

It’s an over-the-top, reportedly fictional scene that illustrates well the series’ fever pitch of intensity and the ways it draws a connection between Siffredi’s sexual activity and his state of mind: the show’s biggest triumph might be that none of its many sex scenes are gratuitous. Throughout the series, flashbacks take us from that moment in 2004 to earlier days in Siffredi’s life, starting chronologically from his childhood in the small town of Ortona in 1974, when he was still called Rocco Tano. With a dismissive father and a chronically worried mother, little Rocco (Marco Fiore) looks up to his elder brother Tommaso, who is dating the most desirable girl in town, Lucia. The sharply dressed Tommy is full of life advice for Rocco, and his ambition is to “fuck the world” — more than a temporary relief from misery, sex for him is his ticket out of it. The show is not afraid to show that sexuality is both perfectly natural and deeply personal, something potent that isn’t merely a bonus in life but a very important part of it. This goes for all the characters, but is of course especially true for Rocco, a child caught from a young age in an intense psychosexual web: between Lucia and Tommy, who may not be his brother at all; a mother who ignores him; and a society where the young boy is never more popular than the fateful day he finds a dirty magazine. The comic book gives the series its title, and through it the young Rocco finds, like the porn actor photographed inside, his own superpower. 

The fact that Siffredi later met this very actor, who would give him his start in the movies, is apparently true, as are the other major plot points in the series. But other elements of the story are rather obviously designed to serve a too neat character development. This would be perfectly fine if it was done with more precision and flair: instead, interesting ideas about Siffredi’s willingness to suffer Tommy’s violent behaviour, the porn actor’s dealings with his family’s shame or pride, and his experiences of lust and love, are rather crudely dealt with. Big statements, usually expressed in voiceover at the end of episodes, announce that an epiphany or change has occurred, when the events of the episode themselves in fact failed to convincingly make that point. 

What keeps us watching anyway is Alessandro Borghi’s phenomenal performance as adult Rocco, which lends individual scenes poignancy and power despite the show’s disjointed quality. Adopting some of the star’s mannerisms, such as his goofy laugh but also his posture and general expression, Borghi plays the character with an intensity that goes some way towards suggesting Siffredi’s apparently legendary magnetism. Supported by the excellent Jasmine Trinca as adult Lucia, and with a convincing Saul Nanni as the bright-eyed 19-year-old Rocco, Borghi’s dedicated and thoughtful turn somewhat miraculously keeps this mess of a series from falling apart at the seams. 

Supersex was produced by Italian companies Groenlandia and The Apartment.

Photogallery 22/02/2024: Berlinale 2024 - Supersex

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Rocco Siffredi, Alessandro Borghi, Saul Nanni, Francesca Manieri, Francesca Mazzoleni, Francesco Carrozzini, Jasmine Trinca, Matteo Rovere, Adriano Giannini, Rosa Caracciolo
© 2024 Dario Caruso for Cineuropa - dario-caruso.fr, @studio.photo.dar, Dario Caruso