EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Guild has acquired U.S. rights to Umberto Eco: A Library of the World, a documentary about the bestselling Italian author with perhaps the greatest intellectual appetite of any writer of his time.
Cinema Guild announced it will release the film, directed by Davide Ferrario, beginning June 30 at Film Forum in New York City, followed by an expansion across the country. Umberto Eco: A Library of the World, which takes viewers inside Eco’s extraordinary personal library, premiered at the Rome Film Festival last October. We have your first look at the documentary in the trailer above.
The Cinema Guild
“A documentary immersion into all things Eco, Davide Ferrario’s film takes us on a tour of Umberto Eco’s private library, guided by the author himself,” according to a description of the film. “Combining new footage with material he shot with Eco in 2015 for a video installation for the Venice Biennale, Ferrario documents this incredible collection and the man who amassed it. As Eco leads us among the more than 50,000 volumes, we also gain insight into the library of the mind of this vastly prolific and original thinker.”
Eco’s interests ranged from semiotics to philosophy, medieval history, literary and cultural criticism, and politics. In 1980 he published his first novel, The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa), a murder mystery set in the 14th century that was adapted into a film starring Sean Connery and F. Murray Abraham. The novel also was adapted into an 8-part miniseries in 2019, starring John Turturro and Rupert Everett.
“A library is both symbol and reality of universal memory,” Eco notes in the trailer for the film as he tours rooms packed with volumes on a scale to rival the Great Library of Alexandria. “Libraries are the common memory of humanity.”
The acquisition deal was negotiated by Cinema Guild President Peter Kelly with Fandango Sales, the International Sales arm of the production company Fandango. The film marks the second collaboration between Cinema Guild and Ferrario. The company also distributed his previous non-fiction film, Primo Levi’s Journey.
Cinema Guild describes itself as “a premier distributor of world cinema, independent films and nonfiction work.” Upcoming releases include Claire Simon’s Our Body and Angela Schanelec’s Music. Recent releases include Hong Sangsoo’s Walk Up, Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers of Flesh, and Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen.
Watch the trailer for Umberto Eco: A Library of the World above.