Praised by critics, but not widely followed, "Liberami dal nulla" is still worth seeing in theaters. It's a revisitation of the chiaroscuro period when he was creating the 1982 album "Nebraska." The Boss is grappling with depression, which has never left him. The frames are black and white, and his mother is from... Vico Equense, Campania. And that passion for Italy, which leads him to follow both his daughter Jessica and her boyfriend De Luca, born in Lecce, to the Gran Premio Roma in Piazza di Siena, a flagship of Italian equestrianism supported by the Italian Air Force.
If you see him unleash energy on the stage in Orlando (Florida), or at San Siro (Milan), in New York or at Motjuich (Barcelona), you certainly don't think that under the ash of that volcano the fragility of the depression generated during adolescence by a violent father within the family and probably also outside it has reigned for sixty years.
That Live in New York City is now celebrating a quarter of a century of recording and is more alive than ever, just like the enduring memories of the performance in Orlando ten years earlier: an experience lived – alas – from inside a rental car in the parking lot of the city's Arena, and therefore with muffled sounds and a less captivating voice than usual, because access to the stands was denied due to tickets selling out in a flash.
And what about the performances at what almost everyone now calls the Meazza, but which for us continues to be San Siro? The first was in the mid-1980s. And then there was the one in the early 2000s in an ominous climate (so much rain...). Rivera and Mazzola then returned to the Meazza green and entertained for almost four hours in 2008, going well beyond the canonical midnight mark, enough to anger the local residents. And the most recent occasions, dated summer 2025?
He, the giant, and his "E Street Band" never fade. Ever. His fingers clenched in a fabric glove. His cuffs getting bigger. His hair going from black to gray and then whitish. His vests, sometimes leather and sometimes fabric, ranging from black to brown to bright colors. Denim jeans and black cotton jeans bought in Como, along with other items of clothing during his raids on the lake, where he periodically lives at the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este in Cernobbio. He loves it especially, perhaps even more than his friend George Clooney, who has even set up a house there on Via Regina, in nearby Laglio—sorry, Villa (Oleandra)! Perhaps because it reminds him of the lake where he rented the house where "Nebraska" and "Born in the USA" were born, both inside and outside the city of New York, where he was treated for dysthymia thanks to the advice of his friend and music manager, the bespectacled Jon Landau.
And his Harley-Davidson that broke down one day along the New Jersey highways, the one that gave him birth and that he will never betray?
That “He” – as you will have understood – is Bruce Springsteen, who through a documentary film confirms his relevance perhaps more for critics than for the general public, considering that on 29 October 2025 at the Eden in San Giuliano (Malta) there were only 5 of us (!) enjoying the show “Deliver Me from Nothing” where Jeremy Allen White invents The Boss: admirably.
Scott Cooper's film may be the same old story, as Eddi Berni writes on CultWeek. But not by much. Steve Jobs & Co.'s Apple (watch out... the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the most famous Apple after the one Eve gave to Adam is coming up) and Bill Gates' Microsoft were practically born in Californian garages. Bruce Springsteen's adventure begins in the bedroom and living room that open onto an outdoor veranda of the house on the lake: that's where Nebraska and Western Stars were born. It's not to be confused with the country residence in Colts Neck, New Jersey. The autumn foliage replaces that of the Loire Valley: no question about it.
Placing a lined notebook with black marker writing on the bed that had never been made up, between sentences matured by reading stories and newspaper clippings read and reread on the films kept in a newspaper library, operating a mixer recovered from a sound engineer at least as faithful as the much more celebrated Landau, "our" Boss brings Nebraska to life and the new film, in fact, is the introspection of that special moment that will give us the first musical magic of Springsteen.
It was 1981-1982. In the autumn of ten years later, in the parking lot of the Orlando Arena, while letting three-year-old Juliet and her companions enjoy the imaginative characters of Disney World and the incomparable marine mammals of Sea World, The Boss won us over once and for all.
Even as depression simmered beneath the ashes of that musical volcano, Springsteen gave his all at every concert: just like when he offered to cover the burial expenses of flood victims, or when he strolled from the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este in Cernobbio to Como before—what do I know?—inventing himself as a giant once again on the stage at San Siro or flying to Rome (Piazza di Siena) to support his eldest daughter, Jessica, a professional equestrian and silver medalist with the American national team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"Deliver Me from Nowhere," which at Eden the biopic said in English, of course, and said... "Deliver Me from Nowhere," is a journey through heart, intelligence, perseverance, cerebral fluctuations, intuition, stubbornness: in between, a bit of music, which begins when the black-and-white clips of his adolescence in Long Branch, New Jersey, give way to the colors of his music. That is, when he abandons the temper tantrums of his father Douglas towards his mother of Italian origins Adele Ann Zerilli (Vico Equense) and the rest of the family, who aren't financially struggling, but not very well off either, to sneak into a movie theater and then embark on the twisted beginning of the career that will lead Bruce to become Boss.
Compared to other docufilms, or musical biopics, Cooper's film appears realistic and the result of sophisticated research. The musical snippets appear only occasionally and serve to highlight a specific moment. The fact that it was released practically at the same time as the remake of Nebraska doesn't bother anyone.
Here, Jessica Rae Springsteen was mentioned: dark eyes, born in December 1991 to Patti Scialfa. When our musical tastes bowed to Bruce, in Orlando, Florida, the eldest of three children was less than a year old. She is the older sister of James and Sam Ryan. All in love with Italy. Over time, she dedicated herself to show jumping and won the silver medal at Tokyo 2020. She is also a brand ambassador for Gucci and... Rolex. In other words: it rains on the wet. But she was a well-regarded professional. She competes with the US national team in the red jersey. As an "independent," she wears black. She began riding at the age of 4 on the 120-acre estate in Colts Neck. And she does so regularly on other properties in Los Angeles, California, and Wellington, Florida. At the age of 6, she got her first pony... And coincidentally, the place where Bruce tested his songs around 1980 was called The Stone Pony! She has distinguished herself in countless competitions in the United States, Great Britain, Italy, and more. She made the Olympic team for the 2012 London Summer Games. She is engaged to Lorenzo De Luca, a horseman of Italian origin (born in Lecce in 1987), who grew up in Modena and then Belgium, an Air Force pilot, second in the world rankings in 2017, and winner of the Piazza di Siena in 2018 after a 24-year absence (Arnaldo Bologni had previously won in 1994).
We've seen them arm in arm. At Piazza di Siena and elsewhere. In the equestrian world, she's "Bruce's daughter" (but not only that: a true definition of an athlete), he's the "jewel in the crown" of our show jumping. Ask Giorgio Nuti: he'll be very clear on the matter. But that's another story.
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