Jan 14

01

FILM REVIEW

Rocco’s True Anal Stories 5
by Rex Murphy

* * *

John Milton did not know of Rocco Siffredi when he wrote, “His spear, to equal which the tallest pine hewn on Norwegian hills,” but I’ll warrant the darker passages of his Paradise Lost would – had they been penned since the advent of home video – take purchase in the minds of the Italian Stallion’s more devoted acolytes, and indeed in the mind of this reporter.

Siffredi’s career, in all its myriad turns – John “Buttman” Stagliano’s European apprentice, San Fernando Valley freelance woodsman, Betacam-wielding gonzo sodomizer, Italian national treasure, art-film darling – casts light on the highs and indeed the lows of contemporary culture and entertainment, its path carving influence into the public psyche with a force outstripping Supreme Court Justice David Souter and Backstreet Boys.

Since a 1998 clean sweep of the Adult Video Awards (best gonzo feature, best anal scene, best musical feature) Siffredi, with crystalline prescience, redefined the thrust of his output, turning his attentions east to the untapped talent resources of Budapest, Prague and Warsaw, finding a seemingly endless supply of Eastern European slatterns eager to participate in the extremes of human congress for the benefit of an appreciative audience. When met with the intolerable pap that is Ally McBeal or the lobotomized dreck of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, I have on many occasions taken refuge in the sheltered cove of a Siffredi production.

The fifth in Siffredi’s flagship True Anal Stories series promises five scenes of undiluted gonzo smut, and indeed this is delivered. I advise devotees of multiple simultaneous penetration, gangbangs, and extreme close-up tunnel shots to partake of this accomplished piece of work. Notable is the deft camerawork and gymnastic four-way action in the scene that ends this tape. In the immortal words of songwriter Bob Dylan, “Who-wee, ride me high.”

This is not perfect pornography. Some of the female performers seem indifferent to the things happening in their nether regions, and appear to take direction poorly, possibly due to language barriers.

It would be churlish to dwell on such minor cavils. There is much to admire in these 79 minutes.

A pleasure to masturbate to.