Only the singular Werner Herzog could take us on a tour of the cave holding the world’s oldest known human paintings and bring along for the ride a master perfumer, a man clothed in reindeer leather and fur, and a former member of the circus. The film tells us about as much about the German director of “Rescue Dawn” and “Grizzly Man” as it tells us about the mysterious traces of our early ancestors. The “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” is the Chauvet Cave in France, just discovered in 1994. Herzog narrates the film himself.
What they found was a miraculously pristine site with paintings made over 30,000 years ago, more than twice the age of the previously oldest-known human paintings. They looked so fresh, there were doubts about their authenticity at first. But the cave had been virtually sealed, preserving both the art and the remains of animals, some now extinct, such as cave bears and lions. Only a small group of scientists is allowed to enter. Guards are constantly posted at the entrance. Herzog received special permission to film there, and he was only allowed a crew of three. “Cave” was filmed in 3-D, and that’s how it’s being shown here in Washington; this critic only screened a 2-D version, however.
| On screen |
| ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’ |
| 3 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Werner Herzog |
| Director: Werner Herzog |
| Rated: G |
| Running time: 90 minutes |
But Herzog isn’t much interested in the scientific and archeological details of the site so much as the people who decorated it. The eccentric filmmaker has so many questions: “Do they dream at night? What are their hopes?” They’re answerable, of course, and at times they veer into the absurd. He even asks an archeologist he interviews about his dreams. There’s something moving, though, about his thirst to understand the souls of humans long dead.
Art might be the most important thing that sets us apart from other animals. As Herzog notes, the Neanderthals never made symbolic representations of anything. Herzog tells us, in his inimitable way, why we care about a bunch of old pictures of horses and lions.
