Umberto Eco’s library told in a docu-film, a journey between poetics and philosophy

It will be released in theaters from March 2, but the documentary film “Umberto Eco-The library of the world” by Davide Ferrario can already be previewed on February 27.

Rossofuoco production with Rai Cinema, the support of MiC-General Directorate of Cinema and Audiovisual, Piemonte Doc Film Fund, Film Commission Torino Piemonte, Regione, already presented in the Special Screening section in October at the Rome Film Fest, the film (80 minutes) , not only describes an extraordinary place – more than 30,000 volumes of contemporary titles and 1,500 rare and ancient books – but tries to grasp the very meaning of the idea of ​​a library. As a symbol and reality of collective memory, as Eco defined it. A place where Ferrario, who had collaborated with the writer on a video installation at the Venice Art Biennale a year before his death, enters thanks to the collaboration of his family. A film, as remarked by the director, which intends to be a tribute, but also to convey Eco’s thought, especially to the new generations, a modern and innovative thought, often a precursor.

The library as a symbol of knowledge, of certain categories, of a quantifiable and determined knowledge, almost of world domination. A place-symbol that collects everything in an orderly and ordered way. A conception that opposes Borges’ library, which instead collects the possible alongside being, which brings together written books and those that have yet to be composed, which is endless. Two different poetics, which should not necessarily be interpreted as antithetical, but which decline two visions of the world.