Somehow, they managed to make such a boring documentary about Umberto Eco's library that it almost didn't introduce the books he collected and didn't convey the charm of those books that made him collect them in the first place. The documentary was divided into sections, and each chapter's title card felt like a laborious journey toward the freedom that awaited outside the cinema. I would think that even Umberto would not be pleased with how little his collection was actually covered in the film that was supposed to be about his collection.

2 stars for the clip in the middle of the film, where illustrations from a book found in Eco's collection were animated. Let's just say that this documentary did not convey at all why Umberto liked these books, what their charm was in terms of content, and what that content actually represented.

What begins by threatening to be an exhibition of UmbertE's 'vegetal memory' (1,200 ancient books and 32,000 modern ones) ends up being a journey through the eclectic nutrients of his mind and the lush fruits they produced, both in him and in us, his readers/listeners.

There's an Argentine quota that doesn't end with Borges but includes interviews with Mariano Grondona ('We are in a time when education is not about providing information, but about teaching how to be selective with it') or exclusive drawings that Quino dedicated to him.

In the end, one finds one more reason not to die: we can't take our library with us.