Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Movie Review: Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a documentary by Werner Herzog about the Chauvet Cave of southern France. Discovered in 1994 they contain the oldest known paintings by humans, 30,000 years old. The entrance collapsed long ago and the environment is fragile and almost toxic so only scientific teams are allowed in. Herzog was granted unprecedented access to film for six days.

He choose to film in 3D to capture the drawings which made use of the contours of the rock. On several occasions I closed one eye to see if the 3D added much and it did make a big difference. It's the best use of 3D I've seen next to Avatar and while most films aren't worth this extra cost, this one is.

594px Chauvet cave paintings 1

They couldn't leave a 2 foot wide steel walkway and couldn't touch anything. There are lots of shots of the crew and I kept thinking, turn the camera to the wall. They seemed to shoot the same paintings over and over again, you'll see the above (amazing) image a lot.

It's a Herzog film so his narration is always fun. His great accent and boyish wonder of everything is infectious. The film is a bit clunky with it though. At one point in the cave he tells everyone to be quiet so they can just stare paintings and hear the cave "and maybe our own heartbeats". That's fine, but then the soundtrack pumps up a Pink Floyd like heartbeat (not punctuated with a cash register but I was waiting for it).

He interviews scientists about the paintings, including one named Wulf dressed literally in animal skins because that's what people would have worn in those times. Another was a perfumer trying to use his trained sense of smell to locate caves. Another awkwardly demonstrates ancient hunting techniques. But that all pales with the ending which literally asks what nearby mutant albino alligators would think of the paintings. Who else but Herzog would connect the two?

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