davesf

This film has excellent photography, especially considering the technical challenges. The evocative title ("Cave of Forgotten Dreams") is inspired, and well reflected throughout. A haunting theme. It's a beautifully decorated cave (quite aside from the prehistoric art). However, the editing is not good; there's a lot of redundancy, odd sequencing, and too long overall. And some of the dialog is rather hokey.

I also had a hard time figuring out exactly where the cave is, even after looking it up on the 'net (finally succeeded using its GPS coordinates). It's another editing defect, I think. M. Herzog should have thrown in a minute or two of orientation at the beginning.

Anyway, I was more familiar with some of the other splendid cave art sites (Lascaux, Altamira), but Chauvet appears to be the greatest of all. It's a more recent find, which is why I was ignorant. I'm grateful to the film for its beauty and educational value.

For a modern Westerner, it is hard to imagine that people ever lived this way ... let alone, that some still do. This film reminds me a little of The Fast Runner (about the Inuits) in its foreignness and matter-of-fact superstition. This is probably like how most of our ancestors lived in medieval times.

It's a real eye-opener about a commodity (salt) that we so take for granted. And also about how little of everything it is possible to get by on.

The film moves slowly because the protagonists move slowly. Some of the dialogue is incredibly tedious and mundane, thus winds up being a defect or detraction. On the other hand, the photography is gorgeous, and truly remarkable is the trust and cooperation that the filmmakers received from the saltmen, who shared many of their usually well-hidden cultural secrets.

All in all, well worth watching even if a bit over-long.

If you've ever been curious about filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, or more significantly, have wondered how a civilized nation like Germany could have stumbled into a black hole of evil and tyranny, you must see this superbly made documentary. It is scrupulously fair, presenting both exonerating and damning evidence without flinching. While it's very clear that Riefenstahl was not evil in the sense that Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, and Hess were, she certainly had blind spots, and a tendency to let wishful thinking sway her judgment. Like most Germans at the time, she often looked the other way when she could (though not always, as on at least two occasions she probably put herself at risk by openly criticizing the Nazi regime).

She is shown as being far more interested in art than in Nazism. I had barely realized what an extraordinary talent she was, not just as a movie maker but as a dancer, mountaineer, actress, and photographer. It is so sad that she became a significant cog in the Nazi regime, and was severely punished as a result (as indeed all of Germany was). It would have been worse if they had not.

"Triumph of the Will" stands as a monument, a sobering reminder of the madness of crowds and the potential tragedy that lurks when they come under the sway of a master manipulator. Riefenstahl's personal tragedy finds some vindication in her willingness to make this film and thus to help us learn the lessons from her life.

9 points.