06/01/2011
Review by David Anthony
German film maker Werner Herzog’s latest creation, Cave of Forgotten Dreams is an extraordinary work. Set in a paleolithic cavern in France, stalactites and stalagmites greet the viewer in all their awesome majesty. The overall effect is enhanced by the 3D technology which transports us into the illusory realm of virtual touch, making its visual elements appear to be within feeling distance. This is not the 3D of Avatar or of the rechanneled Titanic, but rather a step back into time unlike anything we have seen heretofore, taking the natural history museum exhibit to the next level.The particular place, the Clauvet caves of southern France, discovered in 1994, revealed some of the oldest pictorial representations of life from 25-30,000 years ago. Alongside a team of scientific specialists, the French government granted Herzog and a small crew permission to have limited access for proscribed periods. To state that what these caves contain is spectacular is a colossal understatement. The combination of paintings, fossils and other remnants convince the academic and sundry experts (one being a perfumer whose nose seeks to smell out ancient scents) so that they can imaginatively reconstruct a series of scenarios from a distant past.
We see exquisite representations of animals, most notably horses, reflecting details ranging from the most minute musculature to motion, as well as captivating physical evidence of interplay linking early humans and beasts, with all its attendant drama. Contemplating footprints of a wolf and a young boy side by side, a modern observer wonders what became of the pair; did they walk together or did fate then intervene?
This is by no means a perfect film; Herzog’s narration is subjective and designed to place himself at the center of the story. It is inescapable and classically omniscient, sometimes overpowering or competing with the voices of others. While distracting at times, this is not so much of a problem as to interfere with our appreciation of the interior of the caves or of viewpoints expressed by speakers other than the director.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams is big, consistent with what we have come to expect from a Werner Herzog production. Simultaneously, because it is a way of engaging the past inside spaces that enclose the viewer we also have a clear sense of the inner space of sites that seem to have had sacred significance to the artists who made use of them. The window that allowed us to glimpse them could only remain open briefly for the fact of the presence of breathing moderns left its mark in terms of bacteria, bringing a sudden halt to a limited controlled period of paleotourism. Ironically perhaps, we are told of plans to copy the caves in modern theme parks in Disney versions. That the mapping of every centimeter of the sites by laser scanners has been of lasting value is not diminished by these plans. Nor can we take for granted the fact that Herzog dared to seize some of the time of time itself in Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
For The KUSP Film Gang, this is David Anthony