Which Liberato’s secret? Difficult to give an answer. Impossible if what interests you is the mysterious figure behind the enigmatic Neapolitan singer. It is difficult, but not impossible, to analyze the phenomenon and the strategies that led him to success with the public and critics, which made him an influential figure worth studying in the Italian musical panorama, and beyond. The documentary by Francesco Lettieri and Giorgio Testi focuses on this, in theaters from May 9th, a significant date for the same Set free and all those who follow him: the title of his first success, the day on which many new things concerning him are launched. The day something always happens in the world of Liberato.
May 9, 2024
It is therefore no coincidence that May 9th was chosen to bring Liberato’s secret to theaters, with initiatives designed to impress, such as the presentation at The Space of Fuorigrotta in Naples, totally occupied with screenings from midnight between 8 and 9, to away room after room, one minute after another. Because this is the first part of the secret, a management of activities and image studied with criteria. We could call it marketing, but it is not limited to this, it is rather an identity and an art that somehow coincide, overlap, influence each other. So much so that, and Lettieri’s documentary itself says so, we don’t even care anymore to know who Liberato really is, because not knowing it’s part of who he is, his identity is in his non-being in the traditional sense, it is in an identity that goes beyond the mere name and surname.
Explain the phenomenon
Liberato is a phenomenon that must be known, yes, but accepted for what it is, because it escapes any definition and pigeonholing. Lettoeri retraces it from its origins, from that chat in which he suggested he listen “‘nu piezz’l and the resulting record-breaking video of May 9th, costing only 250 euros. An artistic journey reconstructed step by step, from the inside with the definition of the increasingly complex machine that accompanies the deeds, and from the outside with interviews and cross-sections of what happens around him. A surprising and intriguing world that will one day be the subject of in-depth study.
The animation is a fantastic story
At the same time, Lettieri also carries out another interesting operation: he reconstructs the genesis of the character Liberato, telling us about a (hypothetical?) young artist, his training, his interpersonal relationships and in particular his sentimental development, but above all his dream of making music, sole concrete objective and artistic outlet. Lettieri does this with the support of the animation and the work of LRNZ and Giuseppe Squillaci, who build animated segments of great artistic value, with a warm and welcoming style, which take us into the life and growth of an artist in the making. AND fine animation the one set up by the two artists, capable of conveying the atmosphere sought with taste, capable, above all, of circumventing the obstacle of not showing the young protagonist’s face without appearing forced.
Music, beyond images
A final element to analyze is music, and not because it is less important in terms of analyzing the Liberato phenomenon: there is his music, obviously, in Lettieri’s documentary. And it couldn’t be otherwise, because it is true that Liberato is also a great conception and marketing operation, which exploits communication in the best possible way and knows how to play with the expectations and attention of its audience which it has been able to gather around himself, but all this would be useless if the artistic component didn’t work, if there wasn’t the music, his art, to have its say: original, courageouswhimsical, rich, Liberato’s music it is one of the most interesting and surprising on the Italian scene. And we are waiting for the next May 9th to see his discography develop more and more.
Conclusions
The secret of Liberato is an interesting project, which can be both a documentary and a partially fictional film: on the one hand Francesco Lettieri analyzes the Liberato phenomenon from the inside, putting himself on the line to tell the story of the beginnings and the path that would follow; on the other hand he explores it in depth with testimonies from the outside and images from tour stages that do not fit into ordinary logic. It also adds an interesting and successful animated part, created by LRNZ and Giuseppe Squullaci, to tell in a more or less creative way the birth of the artist, the journey of a hypothetical young Liberato.
Because we like it
- The phenomenon behind the film, which is told exhaustively.
- The testimonies and images behind the scenes of the live shows.
- The entire animated part, which embellishes the project.
What’s wrong
- At times the balance between narrative and exaltation of the myth is lost.
