Rocco's Way To Love Review

Reviewed by Renee  on  10/24/2003

Rocco’s Way to Love
Written by Gabriel Zero, directed by Rocco Siffredi and Gabriel Zero

Themes: Rough Sex, Gonzo, Anal

Charenton 1814, a profile of a man from the 1700’s, a photo of an old chateau, an antique book with the words Cet est mon Testament (this is my testament), the signature De Sade. Think this is a historical French drama? No, these are the opening screen shots to Rocco’s Way to Love. This film is an ode to the Marquis de Sade, a murder mystery, and a rough sex film. Sounds ambitious? You bet it is, but the whole works better than the sum of its parts.

There is a story line that runs throughout the film, concerning the choking death of Kelly Stafford. Did Rocco kill her, or his cousin Gabriel? Black and white interludes of these two being questioned by the Paris police, along with flashbacks of Kelly with Gabriel, are used in between the 5 major sex scenes.

This film won the 2001 AVN award for best couples scene; that’s why I decided to watch it. But, ladies and gentlemen, don’t be fooled by the title of this film, or the box cover showing Kelly looking virginal in a white dress. This isn’t a couples film by far. There are numerous instances of raw intensity that showcase Mr. Siffredi’s well known talent for rough sex. As Dumblonde here at ADT would say, “This ain’t no romance.”

Scene 1: Rocco, Nacho Vidal, Catherine Count, Amanda Warren, Aneta Curtis
Amanda and Catherine have both worked with Rocco before, so they would have known what they were in for. In a large home in Prague, Catherine leads Amanda out of a cabinet, puts a black PVC mask on her, and takes her to Rocco in a bathroom. Amanda proceeds to perform a very hard blowjob on him, complete with gagging and drooling. At times, Rocco uses the strength of his entire body to force her down on him. She is out of breath a lot but keeps going. She does get two breaks, once when she rims him, another when he lets her take 30 sec. off, saying to her “You’re almost there” several times. He finishes by coming deep in her throat, for a scene that lasts 8 minutes. There follows a short sequence of Nacho, Catherine and Aneta; Nacho screams when he comes in Aneta’s throat.
Next up is the main portion of the scene, with Rocco and Catherine. For the next 15 min., Rocco does not let up on this woman. He pounds her anally in standing doggy from the start, and she moans loudly all the while. When the moans get too loud, he tells her to shut up, when that doesn’t work, he clamps both his hands over her mouth. For a brief 15 sec, when she is at her loudest, he does pull her close and kiss her tenderly on the neck. But it is soon back to the pounding; Catherine only gets a reprieve when Rocco slaps her on her face or ass, or when there is ATMOG to Amanda.
About 2/3 of the way through, they collapse on the floor in doggy. When Catherine shouts out something in Czech, he slaps her. At last, as she moans as if she is reaching her limit of endurance, he slows down and kisses her. She must have gotten a real break, because a quick cut now shows them in spooning anal, going more slowly. Rocco wants to be slapped himself, but Catherine isn’t getting the message, so Rocco slaps her first. They go back and forth with the face slaps (Rocco likes it), while they talk a bit; they both look more relaxed now.
After a brief anal encounter with Amanda, Rocco comes on both their faces, and the two women kiss. Well, folks, this concludes the most intense 25 minutes of the film. After watching this 3 times, I came to the conclusion that Ms. Count, though willing throughout, was sometimes feeling pleasure, sometimes discomfort. Her sobs are either fake and she is one hell of an actress, or they were real and heartfelt, in response to one hell of an experience.

Interlude: Kelly and Gabriel on a beach; Kelly tells him about her secret fantasy to be killed. When he asks why she likes to suffer, she simply says this is the way she is, she doesn’t owe anyone an explanation.

Scene 2: Rocco, Ruth, Mary, Anushka, Long Dark, Tony deSergio
Rocco rushes into a kitchen and finds Ruth working there. He is looking for the toilet, but doesn’t have the patience to find the bathroom. So he tells Ruth to take off her clothes (why doesn’t he just go in the sink?) It takes her so long to disrobe, he could have easily found the toilet. Anyway, an edit now shows her sitting in a puddle of urine. A brief sex act between the two follows, then Rocco says he has to go (to find the toilet?) Ruth is left sitting in the urine puddle.
In the adjoining living room, 3 Brits (Mary, Anushka and Tony) are chatting away. Before they get going too far, Anushka leads Long Dark, a tall black man, over to poor Ruth, who is still sitting in the urine puddle ( I know it is Rocco’s urine, but does it have special powers?). Ruth and Long Dark begin a conventional encounter on the dining room table. The other 3 are back in the living room, where the women tell Tony they have a surprise for him. We next see Anushka licking Mary, while Tony takes Anushka from behind. Soon Tony is analling Anushka in doggy. After a minute, Mary penetrates him with a sex toy; he doesn’t skip a beat in his strokes, either.
Soon Tony is on his hands and knees, with a bigger sex toy inside him; the women at least have the decency to use some lube. He grimaces with pleasure, but after 2-3 minutes, he asks them to stop. Anushka says with an edge, “We’re having too much fun, now we’re going to fuck you.” He says more emphatically that he has to have a time-out, he’s about to cum big time. They do let him lie down on his back; after another minute with the sex toy, he gets up and comes in Anushka’s mouth, while Mary kisses him. He looks winded as he thanks both the women.
I myself like seeing female-on-male penetration, and this scene was first-rate, but I was a bit bothered by the two women not listening to Tony when he first asked them to stop. It was like some mob mentality set in with them – who says women can’t be callous sometimes?

Interlude: Gabriel spots Kelly reading a book on De Sade. He states that De Sade killed a little girl, that is why he was sent to jail for 23 years. Kelly retorts, “Well, that was his way to love.”
Rocco is now on a beach. He starts complaining about Kelly and her “kill me” fantasy. “I couldn’t hear it from her anymore, man; she was getting heavier and heavier about it.”
An aside: for those who like historical accuracy in their porn, I must remark that De Sade was not sent to prison for murder (he was never put on trial for any crime). He was put away, mostly under house arrest or in the insane asylum at Charenton, because his wife’s family was embarrassed by his sexual escapades and his pornographic writings. Now, back to the review.

Scene 3: Rocco, Sabina Mallory, Veronica, Lucie, Iveta
Sabina is a pretty brunette with lovely blue eyes and an innocent air, that Rocco talks to a lot during this scene. While Sabina is outside taking a smoke on a patio, Rocco teases her by fondling Veronica in front of the glass door, making Sabina good and mad. When Sabina is let in the room, she slaps Rocco (he doesn’t mind); he fondles Sabina’s breasts while Veronica rims him. A dual blowjob follows, with the two girls nonchalantly introducing themselves to each other, like they’re at a party.
Switching to Veronica on her hands and knees giving a blowjob to Rocco, we see Sabina rimming her, slapping her and using some anal beads on her. This must have gotten Rocco excited, because he is soon coming in Sabina’s mouth.
Rocco now has a surprise for Sabina – Iveta in the bathroom, sitting on a ball with an anal plug. Another woman, Lucie in green tights, shows up, wearing a mask with a dildo on the chin. Rocco has Lucie use the dildo orally on Sabina, while he begins analling Lucie. Rocco then tells Sabina to use some large anal beads on Iveta; Iveta takes all five, and Rocco has Sabina lick them off when they come out. While Iveta and Lucie rim Rocco, with Sabina blowing him, he suddenly jumps up and says he’s going to cum. At last, Rocco performs some vaginal sex with Sabina in mish; she winces 2-3 times, but he cums quickly in her mouth, without having to jerk off.

Interlude: In the police station, Gabriel says of Kelly, “She was never a woman.” Huh? You could have fooled me, with her killer body. I think Gabriel meant to say that she was never a lady, due to the next scene.

Scene 4: Kelly and a gang of Frenchman.
On a roadside, Kelly lets 20+ men jerk off on her, and she gets plenty messy. It was sort of a shame, because she is wearing very pretty white lingerie. While she manhandles these guys, she insults a fair number of them, but most don’t seem to understand her dirty talk. I suppose the French are too busy protecting the integrity of the French language to learn those naughty English words.
Bukkake scenes are not high on my list of pleasures (after the 5-6th ejaculation, I just get bored), but Kelly is having a rollicking good time, so who am I to judge her. At the end, Rocco asks if she wants more, and she coyly says she hasn’t reached her limit yet. So it is off to the…

Final Scene: Rocco and Kelly in an S/M dungeon
Rocco mounts Kelly immediately for some doggy anal, and gets rough with her by slapping her hard on her face. While she is moaning, he calls her a nasty bitch. After 2 min., she says stop, and he gets up off her right away. Their conversation back and forth reminded me of a couple having a lovers’ quarrel:

Kelly: Did you break my nose?
Rocco: Yeah, it’s broken (though he looks at her with concern)
Kelly: Don’t lie to me (she slaps him). You know I’m sensitive about my nose.
Rocco: See, I told you, stop this game. Do you want to stop? (To the camera) Kelly is so nice, I like her so much (he caresses her face).

They go back to the hard analling, with more slaps, and Kelly is soon moaning again. He asks her if she wants to stop, she says no. A minute later, she does say stop, she needs a drink. He gets up right away.
There is an editing cut, and when we see Kelly and Rocco again, they … what’s this, Rocco is using lube! Why, thank you Rocco, and good for you Kelly, for insisting on this. She looks more relaxed as he anals her in mish for 2 minutes, then pulls out to cum on her stomach. She scoops it up with her fingers and licks it off. Rocco gazes at her with fondness as she asks, “Would you kill me if I said please?”

This is the scene that won the AVN award.

Final Interlude: In the police station, someone confesses to killing Kelly, at last.
The film credits next roll, accompanied by a French rap song La Rue est Noire (the street is black.) It fits the somber mood of the film.

Overall impression: If a pornographer is going to make an ambitious rough sex film, he ought to, at the least, make it a good one. This film reaches that goal, by including a wide variety of sex acts, some harder than others, but all interesting to watch. My esteem goes to the directors for including the male penetration scene as well, not something that would normally show up in a film like this, lest it turn off male viewers. My only dislikes were the lack of any real female orgasms, and some of the briefer sex scenes seemed gratuitous.
Given the high energy of the sex acts shown, it was a good choice that the camera work focuses mainly on medium and long shots, so that the viewer doesn’t miss any of the action. Things are usually happening so fast and furious, that to have too many close-ups would have meant missing out on something significant. The editing was also quite good; I didn’t notice too many cuts, meaning that they weren’t intruding much with the flow of the action.
Whether consciously or not, Rocco highlights how he treats the different types of women in his films. The seasoned pros Catherine and Amanda get the roughest treatment, while the younger ones Sabina and Veronica are handled far more gently by him. Nonetheless, Rocco dominates all four just with his strong gaze and his ardent whispers; you never doubt for a minute that he is the one in control.
And then there is Kelly – what can be said about her work with Rocco, that hasn’t already been written. Although he is the sadist, and she the masochist, these two perform more like equals. I have no misgivings that anything that takes place between these two is ever done without her express permission; when she says stop, she means it, and he listens. This is one of the reasons that I enjoyed their scene the best of all, that along with the obvious affection these two have for each other.

Extras: Rocco biography, filmography, photos, fetish menu and 3 bonus scenes.
One scene, that I found intriguing, is Rocco with Sabina and Veronica. Rocco is instructing Sabina on how to use sex toys on Veronica. He is quite the professor; his discourse is delivered with the seriousness of a science lecture, and the thoroughness of an Italian cooking lesson. He looks rather happy in this sequence, and gives Sabina lots of kisses and caresses as he talks to her. Well, if you need a sex tutorial, who better than il maestro italiano to deliver it. Perhaps Rocco should consider putting out a line of instructional DVD’s.

Video/Audio Quality: The video quality throughout the film is fine, and the black and white interludes are especially well done. As for the audio, I oftentimes had difficulty understanding the actors. With the British performers this was less of a problem, owing to their good pronunciation and decent grammer. But a good 15 times at least, with the European actors, I could not make out what they were saying, even with replaying a scene. It didn’t help that traffic noise can be heard a lot in the background. Nevertheless, I caught every time that Rocco says the word ‘Nasty.’

Renee’s Wristwatch-O-Meter: This film rates a 10 out of a possible 10. Why? Because throughout, Rocco never once wears a watch. I was beginning to think he couldn’t perform sexually without a timepiece, since in every other film of his I’ve seen, he’s sporting one, but here he goes without. Long Dark and Nacho wear watches, but their scenes are so brief, they don’t count. I don’t like seeing a man having sex with a watch on when he’s in a porn film; I consider it a fantasy killer.

Best line in film: Sabina to Rocco, “I’m getting bored.” This is delivered in the plaintive whine of a child, in the back seat of a car, asking “Are we there yet?” Rocco is too busy analling Lucie to respond to Sabina, so he just ignores her. This is what can happen when you have only 1 man in a scene, and too many women.

2nd best line: Anushka to everyone, “Look at the cat!” In the 2nd scene, as Anushka takes Long Dark over to Ruth in the kitchen, a cat shows up, trying to get to its water bowl. The cat judiciously steps around the urine puddle on the floor. It may be Rocco’s urine, but the cat is not impressed.

Email Renee with any comments you may have.