Make rsync exclude all directories that contain a file with a specific name

I would like rsync to exclude all directories that contain a file with a specific name, say ".rsync-exclude", independent of the contents of the ".rsync-exclude" file.

If the file ".rsync-exclude" contained just "*", I could use rsync -r SRC DEST --filter='dir-merge,- .rsync-exclude'.

However, the directory should be excluded independent of the contents of the ".rsync-exclude" file (it should at least be possible to leave the ".rsync-exclude" file empty).

Any ideas?