Cave of Forgotten Dreams Review

I hardly expected Werner Herzog to jump aboard the 3-D bandwagon, and I certainly wouldn't have expected his participation to come in the form of a documentary.  However, this is an instance of 3-D actually enhancing the film, as the technology allows the subject matter to be explored in more depth (pun[s] fully intended).  Just as he has in his past documentaries, Herzog brings a true story-teller's eye to his subject, and as with his past work, the subject ends up being secondary in interest to the people connected to it.

In Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Herzog turns his eye to the Chauvet Cave in southern France.  Discovered in 1994, the cave contains the oldest specimens of human artwork, featuring stunning portraits on various animals.  Herzog approaches the drawings from different perspectives, including, appropriately, from a film-making point-of-view, as the blurred lines in some of the drawings suggest movement and, therefore, serve as a sort of ancestor to modern animation.  The thoroughness and delicacy with which Herzog approaches the drawings demonstrate his reverence for and interest in the art, as well as the work of the many explorers, scientists, and histories whose lives revolve around the cave.

Indeed, the cast of characters whom Herzog interviews prove to be far more interesting than the drawings themselves (a segment of lingering shots of each piece of art late in the film is truly snooze-worthy, especially as we've already seen them all multiple times before).  For those interested in the anthropological aspect of such a discovery, the work will prove fascinating, but to someone like me, it's far more interesting to see such investment in something so profoundly unimportant.  That the caves can only provide speculation renders any sort of historical or scientific conclusions utterly useless in my eyes, meaning that these brilliant minds are being put to waste trying to figure out the order in which these images were drawn on the cave's walls.

Most audiences may find themselves feeling Herzog's fascination and respect, but for those who see the work as futile at best, as I do, the film's title takes on a sort of sick second meaning: these experts could be applying themselves to such worthier causes, and perhaps they even intended to at some point, but any dreams and ambitions have been abandoned for what is a fruitless, imprecise pursuit.  It's impossible for me to appreciate what can be learned from a drawing of a mammoth on a cave wall, just as for these people, it's perhaps impossible to imagine what work could be more important, as the Chauvet Cave has become a hub of international scientific interest.

Perhaps just as troubling is that Herzog has elected to spend time documenting the cave.  It's interesting to look at the paintings and consider what purpose the cave might've served in millennia past (a dwelling place? a center for sympathetic magical ritual?), but when the documentarian finds himself driven to consider what an albino crocodile might make of the cave, one has to imagine that the subject matter isn't truly important or necessarily worthy of being so thoroughly documented.

Of course, this is all indicative of my personal stance on anthropology as a science and not necessarily reflective of my enjoyment of the film.  Herzog is a masterful documentarian, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams is another example of his well-tuned skill.  While the film tends to spend more time lingering on the images rather than investigating further meaning, there really isn't another way the film could play out.  So much is unknown and unknowable that the best Herzog can do is allow the images to wash over the audience and let them take away from the film what they will.

The 3-D cinematography works beautifully in this respect.  The depths of the cave are imminent and almost tactile, allowing for a far more immersive experience than you might get on the History Channel or even in another feature documentary.  It's a bit nauseating at times (particularly the shaky handheld bit as the team heads up to the cave for the first time), but those instances are few and far between.

The film also functions as a sort of meta-filmmaking documentary, as Herzog's crew is limited by the number of people allowed to enter the cave and the narrow walkways through the cave, making it impossible for the members of the crew to stay out of the shots.  It's a minor element of the film, but a telling one when considering that Cave of Forgotten Dreams seems to be a sort of passion project for the director.  It's just too bad there isn't more to tell.