Review of Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) by Kenneth L — 21 Feb 2012

This is a truly great documentary about one of the most amazing things you'll ever see. Everybody's favorite crazy German filmmaker, Werner Herzog, was given permission to film the inside of the Chauvet Cave, a giant cave in France that has the oldest artwork known to man - some of it over 32,000 years old. For point of reference, Socrates only lived about 2500 years ago, Moses about 3400 years ago, and Gilgamesh about 4500 years ago. Think about it - the people who made this art were much more ancient to Gilgamesh than Gilgamesh is to us. You normally don't even think of human beings as having been around that long.

What's even more amazing is that the art is actually really good. It's almost all pictures of animals (apparently there used to be rhinos and lions in France), and they're very expressive and skillful. There are a lot of these paintings, too, and Herzog wisely often just lets the camera linger over them for a long time without comment. Occasionally the movie does step outside the cave to look at its surroundings or interview various experts. We get a good bit of Herzog's trademark philosophical musings that only he can ask without sounding ridiculous: "Is this where the human soul was invented?" Ernst Reijseger's beautiful, reverent musical score helps make the movie feel like a religious experience. Almost by accident, this movie is far more effective at getting you to really contemplate the mysteries of the universe, time, and human existence than Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life was. This movie, just by virtue of its subject matter, would have been really amazing and special even if it had been shot by a filmmaker other than Herzog; his narration and ability to raise larger philosophical questions are just the icing on this particular 32,000-year-old cake.