A Caverna dos Sonhos Esquecidos

Three stars for the 3D visual experience, zero stars for the content. It is a truly amazing experience to have the brief glimpse into some of what was going on in the human mind some 30 – 40 thousand years ago. The 3D experience is as close we will ever get, since these caves are accessed only by a privileged few. Herzog and his crew had that privilege for a few hours or so. Conveniently for them, an elaborate metal pathway was already constructed, so elaborate in fact, that the workers went into the trouble of shaping the pathway around some of the stalagmites, and so one has to assume that these workers had a greater privilege yet, as this sure must had taken days to construct. The cave paintings not only leave us in awe, but they also leave us with questions, questions about our own nature and how it all began. This is where we get to the disappointing part of the movie. Not that we should expect any of these questions to be answered, but one would hope for some interesting information, something that the lucky scientist and historians have figured out already. But, all we really get is just a parade of circus scientists. I choose the word circus, not only because one of the "scientist/historian" had circus training, but it really wasn't much more than that. Herzog's seemingly Attenborough-like narrative, is disappointingly short on the Attenborough-like informative power. His choice of selecting imperial measurements units (miles, feet) in his narrative also reminds us, who helped to finance this project - US History Channel. Beyond the awe expressed by everyone participating in the production, what kind of interesting information do we get ? Well, we have our circus scientist who leaves us with a magical conclusion that we are best to interpret these painting as the work of the spirits. Another scientist is so taken aback that he even proposes to rename our species from homo sapiens to homo religious. The evidence for that ? Well, I did not see it - they showed it to us from a limited angle and it required a lot of imagination, but apparently among all the paintings of animals they also found one that kinda resembles a half Venus figurine, half bison. Then, we have a guy/scientist dressed in deer skin who "whistles" for us, through a replica of a caveman's flute, the Star Spangled Banner tune, wow. I'm saying whistles, because the melody seemed to have been produced before it entered the flute. We also have another scientist who throws a spear, several times in fact, and then, himself, concludes he would have no chance in life of killing anything. And, to amaze us even more, we have a perfume maker who goes around these caves and smells them. From his acute sense of smell (he is well in his 60s) he then recreates (in his mind) what it would have been like to be one of the cave painters, 30 thousand years ago (in the time of the last Ice Age). Mr. Herzog then concludes this circus parade with a global warming commentary, looking at the cave paintings through the eyes of an albino crocodile - this is not a joke. One might laugh about it, but it left me seriously worried about my human heritage and the people I have to rely on to access it and to study it. What a shame.

Werner Herzog can do no wrong at the moment in my eyes and with this documentary about the Chauvet caves of Southern France, the oldest known artwork on the earth, he is continuing this trend. Filmed mostly on non-professional cameras due to the lack of moving room in the caves, it charts Herzog's limited access to the heavily restricted cave system that was discovered by mountaineers in 1994 and is a fascinating look at the cave drawings that are 30,000 years old. They are a amazing insight into what life was like then for humans as they are quite detailed in the types of animals roaming (lions, woolly rhinos, mammoth and buffalo, remember that this is France!) and the drawings themselves are of amazing quality and have a strange animated feel to them in the way they are drawn. With the restrictions put in place he is quite limited in where he can go and how much time he has but he has managed to capture the feel of the cave well with only torches and fairly basic cameras and i'm sure if saw in 3d as intended (damn my local cinema!), it would make it a even better experience. What the rest of the film entails is Herzog interviewing the many (sometimes unintentionally hilarious) people involved from historians, artists, perfume smeller's and archaeologists and him doing his unique and often brilliantly blunt narrating over all of this. Then comes the albino crocodiles in a artificial tropical enclosure at the end that have some sort of radiation mutation from a close by nuclear generator and you have another amazing film from the main man, Werner Herzog.

The paintings on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in southern France are what makes this film interesting. This cave was discovered only in 1994 and the paintings are dated to about 30,000 years ago. Not shown are the early paintings in the Lascaux Cave (also in southern France) discovered in 1940. The paintings in the Chauvet Cave predate those in the Lascaux by about 10,000 years. Lessons were learned from the Lascaux cave about how allowing lighting and large numbers of human visitors changed the cave climate, causing significant problems like lichens, mold, and fungus blemishes on the walls. Lessons learned from the Lascaux cave have been applied to the Chauvet Cave resulting in severely limited access and the use of special portable battery-powered lighting. Human traffic in Chauvet is restricted to a series of metal walkways.

While it is admirable that a high level of care is being taken to preserve the Chauvet Cave, it is unfortunate that so few people can have the privilege of seeing the original artwork. So, we can be thankful that this film offers a wide audience the opportunity to see the treasures of the cave. Given all the restrictions Herzog must have been persistent in his being allowed into the cave with a small crew in order to film the paintings and other items of interest.

In general I have little use for 3D, but it is of value in viewing the paintings, since the contours of the walls play a role in the effect the paintings create. However, I am not sure that viewing in 2D would not be almost as impressive. One can only stand in awe of the beauty of the artwork. I am sure that one thing that fascinated Herzog was evidence of great artistry dating back to such an early time, indicating that such an impulse has been in the history of man for a long time. It's in our DNA.

Outside of the filming of the interior of the cave, I found the 3D effects to be quite distracting. Camera movement often resulted in visual artifacts. I can understand that the lighting could be a bit dark in the interior of the cave, but even the scenes filmed outside the cave seemed dark. This may have been a projection problem in the theater I went to, but I came away with eyestrain and the conviction that 3D is more of a gimmick than an innovation.

I wish there had been some discussion of how the paintings might have been done, no matter how speculative. There was not much pigmentation in the painting, but there was some. What was used for the paint? It looked like mostly charcoal, but there was no evidence of fires having existed in the cave. Was the charcoal brought in from exterior fires? What was the means of application? Interesting that there were no human remains in the cave; wonder why that was? Herzog seems happy to simply dwell on the mystery, but I think it would have been fun to hear speculations from experts on details.

The elements of the movie outside the filming of the paintings I did not find added much. A lot of it struck me as filler so that this could be made into a feature length film. In particular the "postscript" filmed in an interior biosphere that attached some meaning to albino alligators left me totally perplexed and wondering if a segment from some other movie had been spliced in.

I found the musical accompaniment added to the appreciation of the mystery of the paintings.

An introduction followed by a tour of the paintings would have had more of an impact on me.

Plot

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.

Cast

Made by Werner Herzog, known for the likes of Grizzly Man and Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.

Verdict

I deem Werner Herzog a competent documentarian, likely not in my top 10 but I have time for his works. What I appreciate it how much his documentaries vary in subject matter, this man has a wide spectrum of interests and that keeps things fresh.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams has a very interesting subject matter and as always he tells a remarkable story, however the biggest flaw to it is simply that the subject matter didn't warrant 90 minutes. This would have made for a fantastic 20 minute short film, stretching it out to this extent with a lot of filler footage and extended interviews with people providing little more than speculation is not entertaining.

I enjoyed Cave of Forgotten Dreams for what it is, but it's simply too long and what it brings to the table is as a result watered down.

Rants

You know one thing I do love about Herzog's documentaries (Or at least the ones I've seen)? No agenda. An alarmingly high percentage of documentaries these days aren't telling you about something, they're telling you what to think about it. Much like the news, they don't report it anymore and leave the opinions to yourself they hit you with their opinions. I hate the words agenda and propaganda as people use them incorrectly and use them to describe anything that doesn't suit their narrative. Sadly however, some things emphatically undeniably are and I'm so very tired of it.

Breakdown

Well made I always enjoy Herzog's narration Considerably too long Interviews could have been better.

No one shoots 32,000 year-old cave paintings like Werner Herzog. First off, they're not allowed. The storied German filmmaker was recently granted unprecedented access to Chauvet caves in south France, which house the earliest known human paintings. Cave of Forgotten Dreams is the latest in his library of offbeat and mostly fascinating documentaries. Of course, Herzog's unique perspective is as much a draw as the subject matter itself — the man could make a movie about dirt and I'd be the first in line.

Fortunately, he's dealing with no such handicap here. The paintings that line Chauvet are beautiful, perfectly preserved, and enigmatic. But it's their technique that's most impressive. The conception that early man doodled only rudimentary stick figures and geometric animals is a fallacy, as the craft on display in Cave of Forgotten Dreams is staggering. So much so that early analysis doubted the authenticity of the drawings. Sealed beneath a thick layer of calcite, however, carbon dating proved them genuine.

In truth, there are no depictions of man on the walls of Chauvet. Instead, most panels appear an altar to the animal kingdom, with awesome recreations of bison, horses, lions, and now extinct wooly rhinos. Painted from memory in a dark recess of the cave, the images could only be seen by firelight. Art historians speculate that in those flickering flames, the drawings might have appeared to take life, which Herzog equates to a sort of "proto-cinema." Also of special interest to the director is a bison with a woman's body painted onto the curvature of a stalactite.

Complete with bizarre metaphors, inner musings, and tangential conversation, there can be no mistaking the author of Cave of Forgotten Dreams. At times, the filmmaker even seems aware that he's being Werner Herzog. Not every one of his digressions proves equally illuminating, but you can't really complain about Herzog being Herzog in a Herzog documentary.

Funded in part by the History Channel, his input is infinitely more valuable considering the sterile TV special this might have been. His knack for compelling autobiography proves one of the most intriguing aspects of the film, and rather than work around his crew and equipment, Herzog mines drama from their creative difficulties. The team was permitted inside for just a few brief hours per day, and restricted to two foot wide metal walkways once there. The many precautions and restrictions protect the integrity of the cave floor, and the still fresh footprints and animal remains that have survived there for so long.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams isn't Herzog's best work by any stretch of the imagination, but at almost 70, it's amazing he's still up for the Indiana Jones routine. From the Peruvian rainforest in his youth to Antarctica and now some light spelunking, Herzog is one of the most traveled filmmakers alive. That he can still churn out progressive, stimulating entertainment is a rarity among artists his age.

And as obtuse as it may be, Herzog's ideology is invaluable. Through his eyes, Chauvet cave is a wonder to behold; he captures the transcendent beauty of the paintings and ruminates on the lives of their anonymous creators. Though sometimes he overstates his own eccentricity, the through line of art as an essential human quality circumvents his digressions. Our ability to appreciate the creative output of a society millennia removed from our own is a powerful concept. Here's hoping folks from the year 34,000 appreciate Herzog as much as we do.