Supersex
スーパーセックス
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Rocco Siffredi's life as a myth of Italian masculinity, written by a woman.
Paris, 2004. At a press conference Rocco Siffredi, the most famous porn actor in the world, says he is giving it up, and the series goes back to show how he got there.
In Ortona, on the Abruzzo coast, the boy Rocco Tano grows up poor and worships his older half-brother, Tommaso, handsome and confident, who is going out with Lucia, the prettiest girl in town. After the death of another brother, Claudio, Rocco finds a copy of Supersex, a porn photo-comic whose hero, played by Gabriel Pontello, is an alien with an irresistible sexual power, and Tommaso teaches him that whoever controls sex controls everything. When Rocco catches Lucia with another man and tells, Tommaso marries her anyway, without his family, and leaves.
At nineteen Rocco follows him to Paris, works in a restaurant through him and finds that women want him. In a sex club he meets Pontello himself, who brings him into the business; his first shoot is a failure. Tommaso, suspecting him of wanting Lucia, beats him, and Rocco learns that his brother has been prostituting her. In Rome in 1987 Pontello introduces him to the director Riccardo Schicchi and the star Moana Pozzi, and Rocco Tano becomes Rocco Siffredi.
Success comes fast, and costs. His hometown is ashamed of him, he fears AIDS, he cannot stop having sex off set, and he fights with Tommaso, who has named his baby son Claudio after the dead brother. A girlfriend, Tina, becomes pregnant and loses the baby, and they split. Rocco goes home to his dying mother, Carmela, who dies saying Claudio's name. Tommaso, deep in debt, opens a restaurant in her name, and when he stands up for Rocco against local men's taunts they beat him and burn it. At Cannes Rocco meets a young Hungarian actress, Rózsa Tassi. He tries to push her away for the sake of his work; she stays, without jealousy, and asks him for a child.
Back in 2004, after the press conference, Rocco runs into Tommaso, whom everyone had believed dead for ten years, since he tried to take his own life in Paris. Lucia is marrying a French gangster, Jean-Claude; Tommaso waits outside the wedding meaning to take revenge, and cannot go through with it once he sees his son. Rocco takes him home to a shabby flat whose walls are covered with posters of Rocco's films, puts him to bed and leaves. Alone, Tommaso takes his own life. In Budapest, Rocco tells his cousin and manager, Gabriele, that he is going back to work, tells Rózsa that he loves her, and looks at himself in the mirror and smiles.
Starring
Alessandro Borghias Rocco Siffredi
A poor boy from Ortona who becomes the world's most famous porn star and cannot separate his life from his work.
Rocco Siffredi’s story
Rocco grows up poor in Ortona, worshipping his half-brother Tommaso, who tells him that whoever controls sex controls everything. At nineteen he follows Tommaso to Paris and is brought into porn by Gabriel Pontello, the star of the porn comic he found as a boy. In Rome in 1987 he becomes Rocco Siffredi. Success brings his hometown's shame, fear of AIDS, a girlfriend's miscarriage and fights with Tommaso. His mother dies saying the name of his dead brother. He pushes away Rózsa, who stays and asks him for a child. In 2004 he takes Tommaso, alive after all, back to his room, and has only just left when Tommaso takes his own life. In Budapest he says he is going back to work, tells Rózsa he loves her and smiles at the mirror.
Adriano Gianninias Tommaso
Rocco's older half-brother and first idol, who teaches him that sex is power and loses nearly everything himself.
Tommaso’s story
Tommaso is handsome and going out with Lucia, the prettiest girl in Ortona. When young Rocco tells him she has been with another man, he marries her anyway, without his family, and leaves for Paris. There he sends Lucia out to sell sex and beats Rocco on suspicion of wanting her. He will not visit his dying mother, and watches her funeral from a distance. He opens a restaurant; when he stands up for Rocco, local men beat him and burn it. After he tries to take his own life in Paris, he is believed dead for ten years. In 2004 he reappears, waits armed outside Lucia's wedding and cannot go through with it when he sees his son. Rocco takes him home to a room covered in Rocco's posters; alone, Tommaso takes his own life.
Jasmine Trincaas Lucia
The girl Tommaso marries against his family's wishes, whom he later forces into prostitution in Paris.
Lucia’s story
Lucia is the prettiest girl in Ortona and Tommaso's girlfriend when young Rocco sees her with another man and tells. Tommaso marries her anyway and takes her to Paris, where he sends her out to sell sex. Pregnant, she asks for Rocco to be sent out of their home, and at the party for her baby son, Claudio, she sends him away again after the brothers fight. Years later Rocco lunches with her in Paris before leaving for Los Angeles, and she comes to his mother's funeral. She leaves Tommaso, taking their son, for Jean-Claude, the man Tommaso sees as his enemy. In 2004, on the day she marries Jean-Claude, Tommaso waits outside with a weapon. She walks towards him and tells him she knew he was not dead. He goes, and leaves her alone.
Saul Nannias Young Rocco
Rocco at nineteen, newly arrived in Paris, discovering what his body can earn him.
Enrico Borelloas Gabriele
Rocco's cousin and manager, who hears at the end that he wants to go back to work.
Why it matters
Supersex takes the most famous body in European porn and asks what it cost the man inside it. Its subject is a masculinity handed down: a boy in a poor, violent household is told by the brother he idolises that sex is power, and he builds a life on that lesson while the brother who taught it goes under, prostituting the woman he married. The sex is constant, and Alessandro Borghi has said he filmed fifty sex scenes in ninety-five days. Every episode was written by one woman, Francesca Manieri, and Siffredi himself said the series was inspired by his life but was not his life, and that the writer had put a great deal of herself into it. It premiered at the Berlin film festival in 2024. What it leaves is the question its last scene asks: whether a man can stop being the thing that made him.