Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) User Reviews

The subject matter was much more interesting than the documentary

[cgregcunningham · 6/10 · 1 June 2011]

Having only seen "Aguirre: Wrath of God", my Herzog experience was rather limited. I was excited to see this film because of it's fascinating subject material and because I had enjoyed my previous Herzog experience so much.

Now to the movie: The cave is incredible. They remark how fresh all of the art looks, and it's preservation and immediacy is truly astounding to reflect on over the course of the film. The film notes that certain pictures inches apart could have been drawn 5000 years apart. It really blows apart your comprehension of human history and time.

The narrative around the cave, however, ended up being an aimless collection of some facts, lots of speculation, and airy fluff about the "human spirit" that couldn't quite get to the core of what it wanted to say. You leave feeling like you've learned almost nothing about the cave or its people in the end. Twenty minutes of haunting, slow-panning shots of cave artwork would have had the exact same effect. No hyperbole intended.

Herzog: the Indiana Jones of Documentarians

[colinrgeorge · 7/10 · 1 June 2011]

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.

See it in 2D.

[bodegamedia · 7/10 · 19 September 2010]

I've had really high hopes for 3D since Avatar impressed me last year but have only ever been disappointed since. All this retro fitting, remakes and flickering action sequences has really started to bug me. So, when a few months back I heard Herzog was working on a 3D documentary film, I couldn't help but grin. Finally, I thought, a 3D film that isn't going to be a bloated blockbuster. This films subject The Chauvet Cave in southern France was only discovered in 1994. It contains perhaps the most extraordinary array of cave paintings dated from between 23,000 to 30,000 years ago as well as extraordinary calcite formations, stalagmites/stalactites and ancient bones of creatures long migrated from the continent. The cave was apparently sealed by a landslide many millennia ago which has preserved everything perfectly. It's really something special to see and the sense of great privilege is conveyed by Werner early on in his very proud introduction. He is the only filmmaker to ever have been allowed access to the cave and throughout I couldn't help picturing everyone at the BBC and Discovery Channel shrugging jealously. The picture starts with some really beautiful shots of the French vinyards and mountains near the cave. It's presentation is what we've come to expect and it's instantly engaging. Long roving shots from a remote flying camera, hand-held POV's up mountain paths. The problems only start when we get inside the cave. Werner explains that the equipment that they could take in has to be very limited and they use non-professional camera gear. This isn't necessarily the problem though, we can take it with a pinch of salt. The real problem is in the 3D. First of all there is little light in the cave and so the gain is pushed into the camera signal and there's a lot of digital noise, especially in the dark areas, of which there are a lot. Now, noise/grain is always forgivable, until it starts dancing around in 3D, then it gives you a terrible headache. A lot of the shots are lit solely by a moving torch light and the constant re-focusing of your eyes only strains them further. However. the cave is quite amazing and we get to see it in detail. Later in the film some much better lit 3d shots are shown that really should have been used throughout. Footage of the cave is interspersed with interviews with various characters. The decision to use a rather generic voice over in place of subtitles for these interviews was certainly a small misstep and dilutes it a touch, but the film is not without it's moments. There are a couple of hilarious exchanges where Werner has typically cut someone off too early or left them hanging when they have finished. I do get the sense that he has become self aware and when chuckles are raised as Werner describes a cave painting as "Proto-cinema" I detected at least a hint of self parody, which I don't mind at all. The film winds up with the most spectacularly detailed shots of all, they do linger on a bit too long and I think the back half of the film would benefit from a cut of about 10 minutes. Having said all this, despite the technical distractions, the film is a semi-triumph in the way Encounters at the end of the world was. Some really great personal touches and a fascinating subject, but for god's sake see it in glorious 2D. 7/10

Typically Herzog, typically brilliant

[riff_17 · 10/10 · 22 April 2011]

As much as I love Herzog's feature films, it's in his documentaries that I feel he really excels and this one is no exception. Regardless of being faced with extremely restricted access to the Chauvet caves, the subject matter and Herzog's unique angle on story telling make this one of the most compelling documentaries I've ever seen. His documentaries always have a way of moving me, be it in the passion and determination in the people he studies like Dr Graham Dorrington and Timothy Treadwell or in the sense of awe inspired by the environments he focuses on like in Encounters at The End of The World and this one was no different, right from the start I was overcome with the beauty of the caves and the drawings on the walls.

The context and hypotheses given by the interviewees only helps to deepen the sense of wonder as each section of the cave is discussed in turn by everyone from the chief scientist to art historians, to a master perfumer, and in typical Herzog fashion, many of them are quite eccentric and add some humorous touches along the way. Throughout the film, these specialists, along with Herzog's narration really set your mind racing and I went to bed last night still thinking about the cave's mysteries.

The sign of a good film is never wanting it to end and during his last visit to the cave, the film fades to black a number of times, each time left me praying that we were going to be allowed to see just a bit more. Films like this help to open your eyes and remind you that outside the boring drudgery of our 9-5 existence, there is a whole world of beauty and mystery for us to explore and by leaving us with the allegorical example of crocodiles living in a nearby artificial tropical habitat, Herzog leaves you asking questions about the way we lead our modern life that will last long after you've left the cinema.

Cave art with Werner Herzog

[Favog · 10/10 · 6 May 2011]

I loved this movie -- I mean, I was just enchanted. It was everything I'd hoped it would be and more. My friends whined about this and that -- the music was discordant, the camera-work was too shaky, what was the deal with the albino crocodiles, etc. etc. and so forth. Bleh. What do they know?

Werner Herzog has filmed a 3-D documentary at Chauvet Cave in southern France, location of the oldest known artwork on the planet. Surely you've seen pictures? The cave walls are covered with prehistoric renderings of bison and bears and lions and horses and woolly rhinoceroses and more -- all drawn in a similar style over 30,000 years ago with the sure hand of accomplished artists skilled in techniques of shading and placement and composition. Astonishingly, while these days we seem to move from realism to impressionism to cubism to whateverism at the drop of a decade, scientists seem certain that some of the stylistically identical Chauvet Cave images were created as much as 5,000 years apart.

And what wonderful images they are! Even on the pages of the National Geographic the lions roar ferociously and the horses neigh in terror and the rhinoceroses battle to the death while the bison gallop away in a prehistoric stampede. But Herzog has given us more than a mere magazine can manage -- he's brought life to animals in Chauvet Cave through the magic of the 3-D process.

Yes, I know, 3-D sucks. But in this film 3-D isn't just a gimmick -- the process actually pays off. Of course I'd seen 2-D pictures of Chauvet Cave, but until seeing this film I'd never understood how much the walls of the cave undulate, and more important, how the paintings take advantage of all those curvy surfaces. The muscles of the lion ripple with the cave walls; the body of the bison is placed perfectly so that as the rock turns at a sharp angle, the animal's head can be drawn to face the viewer -- in 3-D the cave seems miraculously to come to life.

Chauvet Cave was discovered in 1994 and for a time the public could visit. But it soon became apparent that human intrusions were changing the atmosphere of the cave, as mold began growing on the walls, and the precious art that had survived in pristine peace for thirty millennia was being threatened. Now the French government has wisely, blessedly closed the place to the public. Herzog and his crew were allowed to enter only for a limited time with limited gear, and from the sound of it this filmed record may be the best we'll see for quite a while.

I was fascinated by the whole thing and I wish I had a way to thank Werner Herzog personally for taking me to a magical place I regret I'll never be able to visit. I think that theme park they're planning to build nearby -- the one at which they'll recreate the cave for tourists -- probably wouldn't do much for me. This film, though, was a very welcome, quite unforgettable experience.

Unforgettable

[JohnDeSando · 12 May 2011]

Don't miss auteur Werner Herzog's memorable documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, about the French Chauvet Cave. It contains the earliest extant art work of humanity from over 30,000 years ago. Paleolithic renderings of animals such as horses, lions, and cave bears, some in motion as if early filmmaking ("a form of proto-cinema," Herzog says) are rendered so lifelike by the film that I'm satisfied to have gotten as close as is possible without damaging the environment.

With special permission from the culture ministry and only a few hours per day, Herzog takes a non-professional 3-D camera and a few scientists and crew into the cave, which was sealed by a landslide some 20, 000 years ago and therefore in pristine shape. So careful are the French that they plan to construct a theme park with exact reproduction of the Cave in order to satisfy the public's natural interest in seeing the drawings but yet keep them from spoiling the treasures with their breaths.

3-D aids appreciation of the curvatures of the caves and the rich dimensions of the drawings, about 400 of them, and the cave-bear fossils and scratches. Ernst Reijseger's understated orchestration complements the lyrical and mysterious world that Herzog's voice cradles.

Because no one is allowed to walk outside the small walkway and few humans will ever enter, an eerie Egyptian tomb-like atmosphere pervades, captured by Herzog's pensive, wistful ruminations about mankind. For the director of such eccentric films as Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, both about mysteriously powerful humans, and similarly the documentary Grizzly, about an odd bear lover, this film is evidence of the filmmaker's wide-ranging zest for the inscrutable spiritual roots of secular achievement and madness.

Of course, there's the romantic take by the French scientists and narrator Herzog, who all describe hearing the voices of these ancient homo-sapien artists echo in the chambers. Herzog's inscrutable post script, perfectly in character with this out-there director involves nuclear reactors, warm water, and thriving alligators. When you figure out his meaning of the doppelganging albino alligators, write me with your answer, for I'm still trying to figure it out.

Meanwhile, Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a superior documentary with the right combination of visual clarity and authorial insight to make everlastingly memorable the forgotten dreams of our ancestors and ourselves.

Could have been an excellent short film

[bandw · 7/10 · 15 May 2011]

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.

Mesmerising, beautiful and compelling

[buster1976 · 9/10 · 13 April 2011]

This is the first Herzog feature I've seen on the big screen and I had read a few reviews on here before going. It's worth noting that I went to the Greenwich Picturehouse cinema in London. The screen, seating, sound and facilities were first class. I'd urge you to see this somewhere with top quality projection and sound.

This is a film about some French caves that contain paintings and markings made up to 32,000 years ago. Herzog documents the difficulties in viewing these astonishing sights and the further problems in filming them. As he seems to be able to do in any situation, Werner finds the most interesting, possibly obsessed and eccentric people to help illustrate the remarkable nature of this cave network.

The film is in 3D. A special 3D camera was made due to the constricted nature of the caves and the early part of the film was shot on a non-professional camera. A few reviews have complained of noise from low light dancing in 3D before their eyes. I saw none of this at all - in fact the 3D was really well handled and didn't detract from the subject matter at all. The undulation in the rocks are part of the paintings - the people that painted them used the contours as the shape of the things they drew. All that said, I don't know how well the 3D will translate to the small screen.

The sound is entrancing. The score is haunting and majestic, much like the French scenery we see and swoop over. A few people have complained of the heartbeat noise that is heard over the "silence" that we're told to experience but I felt it worked well, even on the second occurrence.

There are some odd moments, keeping to Herzog's style, including a crocodile-infested biosphere on the Rhone which Herzog uses to describe the human impact on the environment in the area around the caves. A few of the cave-investigating scientists are odd too, but I imagine the Bavarian director's questions often create an impression of abnormality in the sanest of subjects. Some of the interviews reminded me of The White Diamond or the friends of Tim Treadwell in Grizzly Man.

I'm delighted to have seen a Herzog film on the big screen and felt that this was the equal of "Encounters" or "Grizzly Man". It doesn't have the edgy feel of La Soufriere but that's to its credit. Go see it if you can but make sure it's at the best screen you can.

I wonder what National Geographic would do in that cave....

[kk2840 · 6/10 · 26 May 2011]

...in 2009 a limestone cave in southern France was discovered by three speleologists, who discovered spectacular rock art over twice as old as those of Lascaux. I am sorry that Herzog apparently had exclusive rights to photograph this spectacular cave. Because of the delicacy of the environment, and the fact that the French minister in charge of the caves loved Herzog's work, he was granted exclusive access to the caves.

Unfortunately, his documentary is marred by intrusive music,"arty" interpretations, hand-held cameras (perhaps unavoidable), 3-D, and a dearth of scientific information. The dialog of non-native speakers was often hard to understand. Herzog did the impossible. He created a tiresome documentary about spectacular art.

The Transmission of Imagination

[JSFound · 10/10 · 15 May 2011]

The key scene in Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams comes when he is interviewing a young archaeologist. The archaeologist is part of a research team investigating a cave in France known to have the oldest cave art done by humans. The man says that after he saw the lifelike and almost modern looking animal paintings done 32,000 years ago, he dreamt about the animals coming to life and also on the walls. This then is how imagination and something like the soul get from there to here: from early man tens of thousands of years ago to modern man in the 21st century.

The early cave painters probably dreamed of the animals they saw on the land, and then from those dreams and observations they painted them. We dream about our own lives, but the representations of life and everything that we have produced as the human race--books, plays, novels, sculpture, music, architecture, painting, movies--had their analogue in this cave. Here then is also the beginnings of art. Makes you wonder how people thousands of years from now will see us. Will they take a look at our pop culture, our Glees and blockbuster superhero movies and think we were like that? Besides being a spiritual experience, this movie is an elegy for real art and real nature that defines us, and that in this very commercial age, we are slowly or rapidly losing.

Solid

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 6/10 · 1 February 2013]

Why Herzog deemed it prudent to film this in 3D is something of a mystery. One supposes he wanted to try and make the paintings, not on flat surfaces, come alive, and maybe they do, in 3D, but in 2D it does nothing. Worse, this film really does nothing. There is nothing essentially Herzogian in it. It's a documentary any filmmaker could do for a cable channel, save for the pointless Postscript to the film, involving albino alligators and mystic mumbo jumbo Herzog finds profound.

The film, at 89 minutes, is probably an hour too long, and while interesting cinematography, by Peter Zeitlinger,, and a nice soundtrack by Ernst Reijseger, enliven the film, they can only do so much. Herzog's narration is not what it is in earlier documentaries of high quality, and one sense the filmmaker gets bored with it all about halfway through the film. Nonetheless, it's a tossup as to which of the two documentaries, here under review is worse. This one is not good, but not bad, merely dull.

Another top documentary from Herzog!

[kevf22 · 8/10 · 18 April 2011]

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.

Since "String Theory" proves the existence of the FLINTSTONES . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 8 July 2014]

. . . (we thought them, therefore they were), one would expect some startling revelations from a film entitled CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS. While it's true that writer\director\narrator Werner Herzog digresses into irradiated albino alligators about 86 minutes into this 90-minute film, this seemingly drug-induced Non Sequitar says more about the state of HIS mind than it does about the FLINTSTONES'. Now, when "Chauvet Cave" was rediscovered 20 years ago in France, it would have been actual news IF the original explorers had found paintings of UFO's, or depictions of AK-47's, or blueprints for pyramids, or perhaps one of Shakepeare's sonnets plastered on its walls. Instead, the interior of this cavern (which had been sealed off by a rock slide for 10,000 years) contained about what you'd expect: crude graffiti scrawled by male chauvinist vandals, mildewed and smeared by 100 centuries of the sort of water damage plaguing homeowners with "wet" basements. Instead of hiring "art" restorers to salvage this as a potential tourist attraction (think Mammoth Cave or Carlsbad Caverns here in the U.S.), the French are planning to clone the hole and its decayed scribblings for a created-from-scratch theme park. Good luck with that! (Herzog SHOULD have made a movie about the dude briefly shown here who proves the tune to the STAR-SPANGLED BANNER was the world's first song: Maybe on the Seventh Day, God said, "Play Ball!")

Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Would have made a better short film

[Platypuschow · 5/10 · 22 February 2024]

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.

Gassy, Overblown--and Not Much Art, Either

[billmarsano · 15 July 2011]

This is a truly awful mess. Harzog's reputation must have swayed many critics, preventing them, perhaps out of overawed politeness, from admitting that this is too long and too empty, and not at all helped by the director's vaporings. He wonders rhetorically, at one point, whether 'We are the crocodiles of the future gazing into the distant past' or some such nonsense. (I liked him better when he was shoving boats over mountains.) This business comes at the end, when we (for what reason?) visit a nuclear power station whose waste heat is being used (again, for what reason?) in a kind of hot house to raise crocodiles. Another more important irrelevancy is a prolonged visit with museums elsewhere in Europe; there we hear about the sort of humans who never entered our cave. There are numerous interviews with experts; they convey little except that they are quite impressed with themselves. One of them proposes that the ancient cave artists used spears made of wood with a sharp piece of bone for a point, and insist on demonstrating his ineptitude in throwing it (at nothing). Another plays 'The Star-Spangled Banner' on a bone flute. Another talks about what we can see in a specific painting--but we can't, as the camera doesn't pause for a look.

The art? It's fantastic stuff, thrillingly beautiful--and my experience of it was damaged by Herzog's refusal to recognize the fact: there isn't very much of it, and showing the same images over and over and over again seriously dilutes their impact, especially when accompanied by varying (often awful) lighting; gassy, fake-cosmic narration (what WAS Herzog smoking??); and a score that could be used as a substitute for water-boarding. All this babble and repetition is necessary because Herzog never had enough material to make into a movie. National Geographic would have done this in an hour, not 90 minutes, done it better, and not wasted any resources on 3D.

Unprecedented access? Yes! 32,000 years old? Probably! Moving and beautiful art? Yes, but so little that my wife's comment sums it up well: 'This isn't a movie. It's ten great postcards.'

Good for eyes, bad for ears

[grazillda · 8/10 · 12 June 2011]

In many ways, there is no better form to celebrate the discovery of an untouched cave than with a 3-d camera and an experienced film-maker. As much as I liked the visuals, I was more than a bit put off by the music score -- far too loud, too discordant, too aimless. I am enough of a musician to know why it was done, but it was punishment to the crowd and did little to add mystery or depth to the filming. My other regret is that so little time was devoted to how cave / rock drawings are created, and to the people we assume created them. That might have been more worthy than a fur-clad guy playing a modern tune on a re-created flute, or a character insisting that you could still hear the hooves of one of the animal images. Still, I'm glad Herzog created this film, and glad I had a chance to see it.

Time Out of Mind

[patrickwigington · 10/10 · 28 June 2011]

In 1994 a cave was excavated after being buried under a rockslide for 15,000 years. During the exploration of the cave, they found what is now considered the oldest cave drawings ever discovered, many of them dating back 32,000 years ago.

Cauvet Cave is located in Southern France. Once it was discovered, the French government sealed it off with an air tight metal door and strictly limited access to the cave, in order to keep the drawings from fading. This was a good idea, considering the rockslide limited the air flow, and as a result the drawings still almost look fresh. One can see the great detail in many of these paintings.

What struck this reviewer was how well done the paintings and drawings were. Keep in mind these are the oldest paintings any human has ever drawn, and they are not simply stick figure men. In fact, there are no drawings of humans at all, only animals; lions, bears, horses, rhinos. And while they lack certain 3 dimensional aspects, the drawings are all very detailed. It seems that artistic creation was not something that slowly evolved in humans, but rather burst onto the scene quite drastically.

Some of the drawings are more recent, from 26,000 years ago; including some people adding on to drawings that were made 5,000 years prior to them. It is almost impossible to imagine adding one's own ideas to a painting made five thousand years ago, but these humans were not locked into history.

Director Werner Herzog gives the audience breathtaking images of the drawings, and of the caves—which after being sealed off for so long have developed some beautiful and bizarre cave growth. Herzog was only allowed 3 other men for his film crew while in the caves, and their time in them is severely limited. The only other people allowed in the cave are a team of scientists, studying the artwork in order to understand early man. No one is allowed to touch anything, and they cannot step off of the 2-foot wide metal walkway that has been built. Herzog ventures outside the cave at points and asks these researchers about life for early man around the area of the cave. The cave was never lived in, but rather served as some type of gathering place. Perhaps for festivals, or religious ceremonies. These early humans walked with mammoths and Neanderthals during the ice age, hunted with spears, and wore very warm clothes.

The film was shot in 3D in order for the audience to see just how these ancient artists used the cave walls to create the illusion of movement, and give several of the drawings a flowing quality.

Herzog's documentary is fascinating and beautiful. Perhaps some may think a documentary about cave drawings boring, but the artwork is so beautiful, the discussions so interesting, and the researchers such colorful characters that one must go out of their way to be bored by this film. A marvelous and wonderful documentary, this should not be missed.

http://thatguythatlikesmovies.blogspot.com/

A trip to our past

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 19 November 2011]

This amazing documentary by German filmmaker Werner Herzog has been playing at the IFC for quite some time. We recently caught it because the idea of wearing the special glasses to watch the film was not too enticing. In fact, surprisingly enough, even not seeing what is shown on the screen without them proved to be possible. In fact, we were quite surprised because as 3D presentations go, this film did not appear to be a likely candidate.

At any rate, the subject of the documentary brings the viewer to watch first hand the work of our human ancestors that lived in that part of the world thousands of years ago. The Chauvet caves in rural France are one of the most impressive discoveries in recent times. That explorers were able to access the well hidden entrance to the caves proves to be an homage to those brave men that first went into the unknown world they found in the many animal paintings that adorn the walls of the main section of the caves.

It is surprising though that no humans are depicted on those walls. There are many animals, notably horses, but no human faces were recorded by the people that engraved the images on the walls. There are bones and human remains, but we never get to see what those ancestors looked like, which in a way, would have been a great source of enlightening for our modern scientist to study.

The narration by the director is the best thing in the documentary. Cave art in all its glory has been preserved almost by miracle throughout the years because they were sealed to the world. It is unlikely the caves would have been as well conserved as they are, if other humans had the opportunity to invade them, spoiling the contents that were there for all of us to admire and appreciate.

Art that makes connections and stands the test of time

[dsingram-2 · 9/10 · 15 June 2011]

I saw this movie first in 2D because it was not yet available in 3D in my city. When it did finally arrive in 3D, I went back to see it again. For me, the 3D format made all the difference between merely watching a documentary and actually feeling as if I was there in the cave with the team and the film crew. That said, I enthusiastically applaud Herzog's decision to make the film in 3D so that the shape of the cave walls and their incorporation into this beautiful art work can be fully appreciated.

It is true that little is said in the film about how the art was actually made, and little speculation is put forth here concerning the meaning and the purpose behind these magnificent drawings. However, it should be pointed out that while there are many well known theories available out there concerning the motivation and the lives of our Paleolithic ancestors, the resounding message of this film is that there is so much that we actually do NOT know.

What is more important to me is the way in which this movie demonstrates how much we WANT to know. From the circus juggler-turned-archaeologist to the master perfumer seeking to sniff out another priceless discovery in the French countryside to the audiences who come to see the film, the most significant aspect of the whole production for me is how passionately we seek to make that connection, to reach back in time and to understand.

For whatever reason, the individuals who so carefully observed the wild animals they portrayed on the cave walls, who then utilized their exceptional mark-making skills to freeze these moments in time, have communicated across 32,000 years something that they saw, something that they dreamed, something that they imagined. Whether they intended to or not, they communicated it to us. This desire to capture the moment and make it visually available to other beings validates all artistic expression.

The most daunting question for me is this: with such a heavy reliance on electronic communication rendered obsolete by the next generation of devices, what is our culture leaving behind that will stand the test of time, and that our descendants will be trying to decipher 32,000 years from now?

If your cave knowledge like mine begins and ends with Batman, wait for this to be on television

[Likes_Ninjas90 · 6/10 · 26 August 2011]

This is a documentary shot by director Werner Herzog (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Rescue Dawn) in 3D. With only limited time and access, he explores the Chauvet Caves in southern France. He exposes us to the ancient cave paintings left by the Neanderthals, who belonged to what Herzog calls a distant world. At ninety minutes long this is strictly for academic lovers of art, cave aficionados and possible cave dwellers. Herzog, who narrates much of the film, has made this as a purely factual documentary. Unlike other documentarians, like wannabe comedians Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, there's less emphasis on personality or an attempt to inject Herzog's self into the frame. You don't learn about him or his crew. It's just the facts. What there is of Herzog, mostly his voice over, projects him as deeply passionate about the subject matter. Some will relish his input but I find parts of his narration to be a little too colourful and longwinded, like when he compares the landscapes to a Wagner opera or starts marking parallels between humans and mutated albino crocodiles right at the end of the film. When the film focuses specifically on the cave art it's more satisfying. There are interesting points here such as how the rock faces were used like an easel to work on or how archaeologists learnt to track one artist because of the irregular shape of his finger imprint that he left behind. The fragility of the environment is intriguing too. Did you know that the doorway to the caves has to be shut tight so that they can preserve the temperature of the caves? Some things never change. Or that you can't walk off the metal tracks and onto the dust because of how unstable the ground is and the necessity to preserve the prints? I can't say I didn't learn anything. I also liked the scene where a scientist describes the interior craft of a spear and then rather hilarious attempts to throw it.

A lot of this material is very professionally photographed and made by someone who understands films. It's not like some documentaries that are highly informative but also amateurish in their presentation. However, unless you're especially interested in cave paintings you might as well wait for it to be on TV. The film does make for an intelligent 3D vehicle. The film looks very sharp and the 3D subtly adds the appropriate touches of depth to long drawn passageways. For once it's actually very noticeable. But I find it difficult to ever recommend 3D by itself. It works here but also comes in patches and you can expect a ticket price hike. There are long scenes that really don't benefit from 3D, such as the ones in the scientists office or in the long close-up shots of a cave wall, with the camera scanning for an age. And though Herzog doesn't make himself the focus of the film, his consistent narration and classical soundtrack deprives us of those tense silences walking through the cave and just letting the surroundings immerse you and wash over you. There is one scene though where he briefly asks for silence so that you can listen to the sounds of the cave and the heartbeats. If your cave knowledge like mine begins and ends with Batman, wait for this to be on television. But if the subject matter stands out then you'll find this to be very professionally photographed and mostly informative, in a strictly academic sense.

Infused with a profound spiritual presence

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 30 July 2011]

Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a fascinating journey back in time. In this case, we are not talking about fifty or one hundred years, but 32,000 years in the past to discover a unique collection of cave art situated in the Chauvet-Pont-d Arc Cave in the Ardéche region of Southern France. Discovered in 1994, the paintings are considered to be one of the most important prehistoric examples of cave art. Called the Chauvet cave after one of the first cave explorers, Jean-Marie-Chauvet, the site contains more than 400 excellent quality painted or engraved animals from the Paleolithic period, including depictions of mammoths, lions, rhinoceroses, bisons, horses, bears and other animals, many of which are now extinct. Though Herzog claims the region was in the throes of an ice age and was very cold, game animals like lions and rhinos seem to have been incongruously present.

In addition to the wall paintings deep inside the cave, there are also tracks in the floor including one of a small child, paw prints, fossilized remains including skulls of cave bears, and an ibex (a wild goat), and even wooden flutes in which one of the scientists played "The Star-Spangled Banner." Using red ochre and charcoal emulsion, the Paleolithic artists created hand prints, hand stencils, abstract markings, figures shaped with dots, and many unidentified images. Sealed by a rock slide 20,000 years ago, the site has been immaculately preserved. Since a large influx of tourists might raise the humidity inside the caves leading to the growth of mold on the walls potentially destroying the art, the cave has been seized and sealed by the French government and barred to the public by an iron door. The government has announced, however, that an exact replica will be built near the site for public viewing.

Filmed in 3-D, Cave of Forgotten Dreams offers the melodious narration of Werner Herzog providing a sense of mystery as only Herzog can do, the other-worldly music of cellist Ernst Reijseger - a Herzog regular, and interviews with archaeologists, paleontologists, and other scientists and historians. Though the 3-D technique magnifies and enhances the paintings for close-up viewing beautifully, the technique is not as successful in depicting outdoor scenery, albino Crocodiles in a biosphere near a nuclear plant, or interviews with scientists. In typical romantic fashion, Herzog calls the Chauvet cave the place "where the modern human soul was awakened." Though it is repeatedly said in the film and elsewhere that the Chauvet caves are the oldest examples of prehistoric art in the world, what is left unsaid is that there may have been hundreds if not thousands of other examples of Paleolithic art that have been lost and may indeed have been much older.

In fact, in 2000, Science magazine reported that cave paintings found in northern Italy at Fumane that fell from the cave roof were embedded in floor sediments dated to between 32,000 and 36,000 years ago. Even then, it is impossible to know how long the paintings remained intact on the ceiling before they fell to the floor. Indeed, we can even go back 77,000 years to find the earliest piece of abstract art in the world – a small ochre slab engraved with a cross-hatched grid in the Blombos cave in South Africa. Herzog seems to give the impression that the cave paintings at Chauvet are unique, even though similar cave paintings from the same period have been discovered in Germany at Vogelhared, Hohlenstien-Stadel, Geissenklosterle, and Hohle-fels as well as in Spain, Australia, and as far away as Southern Africa.

Herzog says that the greatest mystery is who these people are and asks, "What do they think?, Do they cry at night?" The bigger mystery, however, is ignored. This is the widespread depictions of half-man, half beast creatures, known as therianthropes, visible in caves all over the world. Granted that the film is not about cave art in general, but about the paintings in a particular location, it should be pointed out that a bison-man hanging suspended from the ceiling at Chauvet matches closely the outline of a bison-man in the cave of El Castillo in northern Spain thought to be dated 15,000 years ago, an incredible span of 17,000 years separating the two. No explanation of these figures and their precise relationship with the naturalistic images of animals has ever been accepted, and remains one of the major unsolved mysteries of cave art.

Anthropologist David-Lewis Williams has suggested, however, that cave art may be an indication of shamanistic practices - paintings by functionaries in the society with an ability to enter the spirit world and control altered states of consciousness. Whatever their origin and purpose (something we may never know), the art of Chauvet is a wonder, not because it is the oldest, but because of the stunning use of expressive techniques as in the utilization of curved rock formations creating the impression of movement, and the use of perspective and shadows in painting a group of horses and the clashing of two rhinos. Cave of Forgotten Dreams not only captures the immense power of art that dates to the dawn of man's history, but infuses it with a profound spiritual presence. It is a remarkable achievement and Herzog's best film in years.

Astonishing cave

[Laakbaar · 6/10 · 8 December 2012]

If you go to see this documentary, you will learn pretty well everything there is to learn about the astonishing 30,000 year-old paleolithic paintings in the Chauvet Cave in southern France. The paintings and the beautiful cave are competently filmed and presented in almost loving detail. Various experts are called in to explain it all. The most amazing fact in the movie is that carbon dating has revealed that the cave was used for over 5,000 years for the same purpose.

The film maker and his crew had to deal with extraordinary restrictions, but they succeeded in showing in full 3D glory the importance and artistry of this cultural wonder. This is a place none of us will ever visit, but this film shows the movie goer exactly what it is like.

The downside is that this exposition is accompanied by far too much dialogue, including some that I can only describe as trite, irrelevant and rather pompous philosophising. There was also an incomprehensible postscript involving albino crocs. With great respect to Mr Herzog, I think much of this should have been edited from the film. I wouldn't say it ruined the movie, but it did leave one wishing it would end.

I realise that Mr Herzog wanted this to be more than a Nat Geo special, but I think most of us would have been much more interested in seeing visualisations and re-creations of the animals depicted and the lives of the paleolithic artists.

My thoughts

[romangronkowski · 9/10 · 8 May 2017]

A film that should touch the human in everybody. Werner Herzog's documentary "Cave of Forgotten dreams" brings images to the world, that have not been seen for over 20,000 years. This masterpiece in film takes us to view the oldest known pictorial works of art in human history some dating back as far as 32,000 years old. The artwork mainly consists of Horses, Lions and Bison of the time. Situated in a France, the "Chauvet caves" where discovered in 1994, up until that time the caves had been sealed completely by a rock fall and its contents locked in time. Herzog guides us poetically through the cave introducing us to the artwork made by humans of the upper Paleolithic era, offering interpretations from himself and eccentric experts. They include an archaeologist, a master perfumer and an anthropologist. Each of them puts in their own ideas and element of madness, coerced out by Herzog's peculiar questions. Often Herzog goes off track in his interviews and asks questions that would not normally spring to mind. This approach to telling the story purifies the concepts Herzog is trying to put across, Ideas of "The beginning of the human soul" and emotions and dreams of the ancient humans. This only magnifies the amazing and quite stunning story of the cave. Throughout the film Herzog perpetually looks for the human in all of his Interviewee's in an attempt to connect them to the human's of the past. I find the greatest achievement of the film is the bridge built by Herzog to the humans of the cave; he somehow restores a link over such an abyss of time that is truly remarkable. His poetic soliloquies require no further comment, only amazement and acknowledgment of the ideas he plants in your brain that grow if you let them. After the film I was left completely stunned at this beautiful delve into an ancient world and somehow I felt a strange empathy towards the humans of the time. The camera work and look of the film is gorgeous although within the cave Herzog is limited in his equipment and allowed only a few LED lights. Yet he manages to play with the shadows and textures of the paintings with light, enriching the visuals and creating movement. He try's to mentally take us to the cave and imagine the artists standing there, admiring their work by the light of fire's, as their paintings flicker, shift and move like real animals. Time and time again throughout the film you are left in state of awe, this film goes above and beyond the requirements of documenting; it reaches the heights of being culturally significant to the human community. An original music score was written for the film, it has a haunting quality. It plays mostly over images of the artwork, complimenting the camera work as the camera moves right as the animals face left. The illusion of movement is created with the lights and the music is appropriately titled "Shadow". This sequence in the film is so deep and raw with emotion, the animals really do appear real, as if in packs and out hunting. Herzog then explores outside the cave, introducing us to a Paleolithic flute made from ivory. A rather enthusiastic and possibly mad "experimental" archaeologist plays "star spangled banner" with the limited notes on the flute. This is yet again Herzog building a relationship between us and these wonderful humans of the past. Is he perhaps implying that 30,000 years ago, a man may have played that tune out of the flute, unaware of what that song would go on to represent? Or did it perhaps mean something then? There are few negatives that can be drawn from the film, and also for Herzog. Perhaps his fabrication of the lives of the ancient humans may be of an annoyance to the less poetically inclined, who want for concrete facts and no creative speculation. I find his style and vision faultless, if facts are what you are after then there are textbooks with them. Herzog provides so much more, that the only negative that can be cast upon him, will simply be a dislike to his film making in general. I will conclude as Herzog did exploring the ideas of humanness. I found this a very touching point to end the film on. His interviewee talks about the ideas that man has to communicate his surroundings, from the animals to the landscapes and humans themselves, there seams to be this urge to paint it, draw it or film it. Suggesting that visuals serve as a far greater articulation of human spirit than forms of oral language. Herzog suggests that this cave was possibly the start of such a communication with the future. A thought I had after the film was, what if the Humans of the cave could view this film, and how would they react to the wonder and amazement to their work? Would Herzog's interviewee's hypotheses come true, that these humans where trying to communicate their world to the future? It is perhaps that, but the real beauty in Herzog's outstanding film is that it will stand as a testament for humans of this civilisation to the humans of the next, it will tell of our fascination with Art, History and our fellow man.

Our past and our future

[adilsylqa · 7/10 · 5 April 2012]

Well another great film by Werner. This film is about our past and our future...While those paintings show us the eldest of our civilization which we never know existed(20-30 thousand years ago) Werner takes the best out of it and makes it like we are there,actually wondering what those paintings meant. It makes us realize that a civilization millenniums ago maybe had totally other perceptions of the world and its worthless trying to solve the mystery of those beautifully crafted paintings from our point of view. Maybe it was some deity,or a prayer for a good hunting season,we will never know. And I really liked the part with the albinos. It shows us that through all this climate change(i know albinos have nothing to do with the climate change)maybe some millenniums in the future,what will be left as our legacy? What will our predecessors think about us? Maybe they will think of us as primitives as we think for cave men. What will they be their perceptions? Will the spiritualism be totally deceased by then? We will never know.

Science With Grandpa

[MyFilmHabit · 3/10 · 30 May 2011]

I went to see this movie over the weekend, and it was really one of the most amazing, and bizarre things I've ever seen. Werner Herzog takes a tiny camera crew into the famous Chauvet caves in France, giving us a glimpse of the amazingly preserved cave paintings I've only seen in text books up 'til now. Audiences get to view, en masse, a very famous location that they will almost certainly never be able to see in person because of the tight restrictions put in place by the French government to protect its pristine condition. And, better yet, if you see it in the theater like I did, you can see it in 3-D. This sounds like a really cheesy gimmick, but I assure you that the effect really enhances the experience, allowing us to really appreciate how the painters incorporated the natural curves of the wall into their drawings.

All this is pretty cool. But, then we have to endure Werner Herzog's own, particularly zany presentation of the material. He's got a pretty big reputation as a director, but I get the feeling he's getting a bit more eccentric as he ages. First of all, the film is about fifty percent too long. Everyone in the audience was squirming in their seats at about the sixty-minute mark. I understand that one's film needs to be a certain length in order for it to be taken seriously as a feature film, and Herzog achieves this length in one of the most amusing and tedious ways possible. There's only so much footage you can show of the actual cave and the art inside before the footage starts to become a bit redundant. So Herzog calls in a fleet of various "experts" to weigh in, and comment on various aspects of the cave. He's tracked down an assortment of the most delightfully odd, local crackpots. There's an "experimental" archaeologist, who gets into the sciency mood by dressing up in anachronistic and geographically inaccurate fur pelts. There's the master perfumer/spelologer, who looks for new caves by sniffing cracks in the ground for that "cavey" smell. The vintner/anthropologist who enjoys speculating on Paleolithic behavior and mythology, and favors historical reenactments. And, all these experts are pretty visibly pleased with themselves, grinning into the camera after giving us little demonstrations of their "science." It's all pretty endearing. And, these characters are all so very French.

The images of the cave are all pretty amazing. We really get to appreciate how perfectly the artwork has been preserved with the cave being sealed off for so many thousands of years. We can almost ignore all the strange "authorities" Herzog has marching through the film at such regular intervals. But, the tone of the movie was finally set in my mind by Herzog's wonderfully insane postscript. It's a meditation on humanity and culture, nuclear power and albino alligators. The moral conclusions he draws are pretty questionable, and the science is pure quackery. All you can really do is sit there with that wide-eyed stare, wondering if this guy is really serious, or if he's playing some big joke. Either would kind of be wonderful, but of course, for very different reasons.