Cave of Forgotten Dreams
A wanderlust documentarian, Werner Herzog has found his film subjects in remotest Alaska (Grizzly Man) and Antarctica (Encounters at the End of the World) and on Texas' Death Row (Into the Abyss). For his first experiment in 3-D cinematography, this pioneer won permission to film our planet's earliest known artworks: wall drawings some 30,000 years old in the Chauvet cave in the South of France. Preserved by an avalanche that sealed the cave's opening 20 millennia ago, the sketches reveal visions of a time when Neanderthals still trudged across Europe and the English Channel was a dry bed. Someone daubed glorious images of wild animals — lions, wolves, bison, bears — with a sophistication that reveals the beasts' contours and propulsive power. The bison, for example, is shown with eight legs, "suggesting movement," Herzog says; "sort of a proto-cinema." In the paintings, he finds analogies to Picasso, Fred Astaire and Baywatch. At 69, Herzog has entered his 50th year of moviemaking. This is one of his most revealing and appealing journeys into the cave of the human soul.