Umberto Eco: A Library of the World

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Umberto Eco: A Library of the World

2023

1h 20m

Documentary

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100%

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9 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

Umberto Eco's private library was a world in itself: more than 30,000 contemporary books and 1,500 rare and antique volumes. The director had worked with Eco one year before the writer's death on a video project for the Venice Art Biennale in 2015, gaining access to the library. With the help of Eco's family he has now produced a documentary that describes a one-of-a-kind place, but also tries to catch and represent the universal idea of a library as "memory of the world", as Eco himself liked to describe it.

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Nicolas Rapold

New York Times

06/29/2023

Exploring fictional worlds with Eco for a guide remains a diverting and often enlightening pursuit.

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William Repass

Slant Magazine

06/25/2023

3/4

The film becomes a timely epistemological rumination on the difference between knowledge and information, the relationship between memory and technology.

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Anne Brodie

What She Said

07/18/2023

4/4

Features 500-year-old volumes that look new, older books that look old, ancient drawings, charts, curiosities, magic spells, divination, elaborate jokes, the complete Charlie Brown, one featuring a glass receptacle on the spine holding dog’s testicles.

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Chris Knight

Original Cin

07/14/2023

A

The contemporary Italian philosopher, medievalist, critic, commentator and reluctant novelist comes to buoyant, engaging life in this look back at the man and his books, through the eyes of family and friends, and in the author’s own words.

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Pat Mullen

POV Magazine

07/13/2023

The cinematography by Andrea Zambelli and Andrea Zanoli captures the libraries lovingly. One can practically smell the wonderful mustiness of the old books.

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Zach Lewis

In Review Online

07/03/2023

Although the documentary shies away from a paint-by-numbers talking head format, the filmmaking instincts here are still all-too-familiar. That said, Eco’s words are indeed easy to follow, and his various lectures... are entrancing.

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David F

@dfulmer 08/03/2024

This documentary about Umberto Eco focuses a lot on his books, which tended towards the old and eccentric. It gives an overview of the Italian intellectual’s career, features interviews with his family, and lot of interviews with the man himself over the years on all sorts of topics ranging from philosophy to popular culture. It was not comprehensive but like its subject it was intellectually stimulating and ranged over many different topics and themes.

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Davide Ferrario

Director

Umberto Eco

Self

Giuseppe Cederna

Self

Niccolò Ferrero

Self

Paolo Giangrasso

Self

Walter Leonardi

Self

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79%

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Synopsis

Umberto Eco's private library was a world in itself: more than 30,000 contemporary books and 1,500 rare and antique volumes. The director had worked with Eco one year before the writer's death on a video project for the Venice Art Biennale in 2015, gaining access to the library. With the help of Eco's family he has now produced a documentary that describes a one-of-a-kind place, but also tries to catch and represent the universal idea of a library as "memory of the world", as Eco himself liked to describe it.

Director: Davide Ferrario
Producer: Davide Ferrario, Francesca Bocca
Distributor: The Cinema Guild
Production Co: Ministero della Cultura (MiC), RAI Cinema, Rossofuoco, Film Commission Torino-Piemonte
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 30, 2023, Limited
Runtime: 1h 20m