**** WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ****
It's no secret that this is an adult production, and so anyone expecting cable softness (unless a censored version exists for hotel safe viewing, shudder the thought!) will be exposed to a variety of sexual acts in all their spendor.
I had rented this one in the late 80s at a local video store because I had never seen a Cicciolina feature, but was well aware of her notoriety - getting non-Dorcel XXX back in those days way like playing roulette: you couldn't garantee specific performers nor titles (but I digress). In any case, as it turned out the feature also had american performers such as Amber Lynn, Tracey Adams, and of course the legendary John Holmes.
Read anything about this production, and watch any documentary about "The King" (that's how some labelled Mr Holmes in the day) and you will know that John was already infected with AIDS, and kept his health issues a secret to continue working in the buisness. When you think about it, it's a sheer miracle that performers like Amber or Cicciolina actually survived unscathed by having unprotected sex with Mr Holmes during the shooting of this film.
Yes, it's a film: it was shot on 35mm (or at least 16mm, blown up to 35mm), and unfortunately like many film productions of the X variety of the day, the entire audio is over-dubbed by different voice actors, which makes it sound rather odd especially if you are falimiar with the original voices of Homes, Lynn, and Adams... And even Christoph Clark, who went on to have a decent career as a stud as well as director of numerous european-american productions for the Evil Angel studio, has a small role in this film.
In terms of actual sex scènes, it is obvious that compared to the post Y2K era of smut, things are not only rather "standard" but could almost feel "tame" in comparison. Even a DP by Cicciolina may barely raise an eyebrow from today's jaded viewers, but back in the day, not everyone performed the act, and so was still a "novelty".
In terms of legacy, this is one of those 80s-90s productions which should be re-released on digital and DVD formats strictly for it's historical reference. It may have already benefited a DVD release but if so, it has long since been discontinued and next to impossible to track down. Although nowhere near the "classic" status of some other X film prints much more deserving of the title of "classic", "Rise of the Roman Empress" was centainly to be one of Cicciolina's introductions to the american markets, and while she did have other cross-over (US-Europe) releases subsequent to this one (the sequel, "Rise of the Roman Empress II" was a much better smut flick), her american career never truly launched the way her then protégée Moana Pozzi did (Ms Pozzi went on to do a few 100% US video productions before her return to Italy and rumoured "fake-her-own" death).
I am not attempting to downplay the horrible choice John Holmes did by continuing to shoot adult features while knowing he was infected. In fact, this was one of the first times I recall of a bonafide AIDS scare in the adult buisness, and sadly not the last. Darren James had no clue when he unfortunately transmitted the disease to a handful of female performers, and has since been an advocate to sensitize people to the problem. Long time X stud Marc Wallice wasn't such a gent when he faked his tests to continue working even though we was infected... Worst part? He is STILL part of the industry, however I heard he was doing editing now... but that's no excuse.
No, the real notoriety of this film is the fact that it was one of Holmes' final on-screen performances while knowing fully he was infecting other people in the process. It is a video document of a dead man walking, apparently attempting to bring down as many others along with him in the process.
Rated 6 out of 10 due to the bad dubbing, the sometimes odd camera angle choices and choppy editing, and of course because of Mr Holmes' "murder-suicide" presence.
It's no secret that this is an adult production, and so anyone expecting cable softness (unless a censored version exists for hotel safe viewing, shudder the thought!) will be exposed to a variety of sexual acts in all their spendor.
I had rented this one in the late 80s at a local video store because I had never seen a Cicciolina feature, but was well aware of her notoriety - getting non-Dorcel XXX back in those days way like playing roulette: you couldn't garantee specific performers nor titles (but I digress). In any case, as it turned out the feature also had american performers such as Amber Lynn, Tracey Adams, and of course the legendary John Holmes.
Read anything about this production, and watch any documentary about "The King" (that's how some labelled Mr Holmes in the day) and you will know that John was already infected with AIDS, and kept his health issues a secret to continue working in the buisness. When you think about it, it's a sheer miracle that performers like Amber or Cicciolina actually survived unscathed by having unprotected sex with Mr Holmes during the shooting of this film.
Yes, it's a film: it was shot on 35mm (or at least 16mm, blown up to 35mm), and unfortunately like many film productions of the X variety of the day, the entire audio is over-dubbed by different voice actors, which makes it sound rather odd especially if you are falimiar with the original voices of Homes, Lynn, and Adams... And even Christoph Clark, who went on to have a decent career as a stud as well as director of numerous european-american productions for the Evil Angel studio, has a small role in this film.
In terms of actual sex scènes, it is obvious that compared to the post Y2K era of smut, things are not only rather "standard" but could almost feel "tame" in comparison. Even a DP by Cicciolina may barely raise an eyebrow from today's jaded viewers, but back in the day, not everyone performed the act, and so was still a "novelty".
In terms of legacy, this is one of those 80s-90s productions which should be re-released on digital and DVD formats strictly for it's historical reference. It may have already benefited a DVD release but if so, it has long since been discontinued and next to impossible to track down. Although nowhere near the "classic" status of some other X film prints much more deserving of the title of "classic", "Rise of the Roman Empress" was centainly to be one of Cicciolina's introductions to the american markets, and while she did have other cross-over (US-Europe) releases subsequent to this one (the sequel, "Rise of the Roman Empress II" was a much better smut flick), her american career never truly launched the way her then protégée Moana Pozzi did (Ms Pozzi went on to do a few 100% US video productions before her return to Italy and rumoured "fake-her-own" death).
I am not attempting to downplay the horrible choice John Holmes did by continuing to shoot adult features while knowing he was infected. In fact, this was one of the first times I recall of a bonafide AIDS scare in the adult buisness, and sadly not the last. Darren James had no clue when he unfortunately transmitted the disease to a handful of female performers, and has since been an advocate to sensitize people to the problem. Long time X stud Marc Wallice wasn't such a gent when he faked his tests to continue working even though we was infected... Worst part? He is STILL part of the industry, however I heard he was doing editing now... but that's no excuse.
No, the real notoriety of this film is the fact that it was one of Holmes' final on-screen performances while knowing fully he was infecting other people in the process. It is a video document of a dead man walking, apparently attempting to bring down as many others along with him in the process.
Rated 6 out of 10 due to the bad dubbing, the sometimes odd camera angle choices and choppy editing, and of course because of Mr Holmes' "murder-suicide" presence.