Review of Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) by Kevin D — 13 Oct 2011

As ever, Herzog cannot resist fucking with us, especially when working in the documentary realm. For example, there is a tangent about radioactive albino crocodiles at the end which kind of stretches the "ecstatic truth" he aims for a bit beyond the breaking point.

But the use of 3D is essential to the subject matter. This is truly 3D technology used in its best, immersive sense, imparting upon us something like the impact the paintings are said to have when witnessed in person. Herzog, observing how the paintings depict an animal in different poses on adjacent cave surfaces, calls them "a kind of proto-cinema", observing that under the right light, they seem to move. Then again, when he's filming one of the talking heads, sometimes the 3D is shoddy, and probably intentionally so, because, again, that's our boy Herzog: always fucking with us.