Isn’t it sad when a beautiful, well-made and extraordinary film doesn’t achieve commercial success? One such discard is the wonderful ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’, made by veteran director Werner Herzog (who also supplies the commentary) about the prehistoric cave paintings in the Chauvet Cave in southern France.
Dating to about 30,000 years ago, these are the oldest cave paintings in the world, and were only discovered in 1994 by a group of cavers, including Jean-Marie Chauvet after whom the cave was named. They were following instinct, sure than a series of caves must exist within some limestone cliffs, and checking inch by inch for draughts that would indicate such a hollow hill. Bingo, they found a tiny entrance, squirmed through, and found an incredible series of natural caves. To their disbelief, this awesome discovery was made even more exceptional when they realised that the white walls were covered with prehistoric art – paintings of animals, handprints of humans, geometric shapes, and impressions of a fertile human woman.
Herzog lovingly conducts us around the walls of the caves, pointing out how our ancestors of 30,000 years ago used the natural curves of the stone to enhance their pictures, so that a bulge in the wall becomes a 3D haunch of an animal, or an outcropping is outlined as an horned head.
Several animals are drawn with overlapping images, which Herzog explains as giving an impression of movement flickering torch light is shone upon them while the torch-holder is walking. Another awesome effect is how a person’s shadow in torchlight will touch upon and cover some of the images.
One of the most touching points comes as Herzog shows a stretch of wall covered with hand-prints made by a person with a deformed finger. Nowadays, of course, most people would resort to cosmetic surgery to correct this, but in the distant past, our artist lived with it and made it a monument to the human spirit as he placed his prints and his art all over the cave.
This film had only a short cinema release, but it is a glorious show that deserves a much wider audience.
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