Review of Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) by Jaime M — 20 Sep 2011

Werner Herzog, along with Errol Morris, is the world's foremost documentary filmmaker. His subjects are always fascinating, his filming is always precise, and his narration is thoughtful and kind, almost, after time, like the kindly voice of your grandfather. Add to that his amazing work in fictional feature films and this guy knows how use a camera and tell a story.

Cave is a fascinating film about some newly (at the time the film was made) discovered cave paintings in France. The story's of what may or may not have lead to the paintings and what they were possibly trying to say with them are sometimes pretty far reaching, but always insightful and usually interesting.

To be honest, I felt the film could have been about half its length, too often repeating its insights, and returning to the same cave paintings, interesting as they are, over and over again until the wonder of them comes close to wearing thin by the end.

But this is a film that should be seen, it will make you think and the culture shock of walking back into the theatre, especially if it's in a mall like mine was, after spending an hour and a half with prehistoric cave paintings and reflections on this time in history, will drive the effect of the film home that much more.