Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Deb 5 Me 5

Herzog is a famous dude and he comes up with some great movie titles. This one not so much, but he has a long distinguished career. Here he is tackling the cave paintings in France, thirty two thousand year old cave paintings perfectly preserved for us to see. And hear speculation about.

I was VERY excited about seeing this movie because the paintings really intrigued me. The movie was a let-down, but the paintings carried the day. There was some good background to the discovery of the cave, although the footage shot on the cave’s approach was terrible, better shots came from the untrained pranksters in Magic Trip. We were introduced to a gaggle of professionals whose work was never shown to us and soon they were abandoned altogether. The music was horrible. Werner played the part of Huell Howser, talking to us as if we were children throughout. Questions were posed and discarded all the time, partial facts and innuendo were provided that never satisfied these viewers.

But the paintings. Turn off your hearing aid and look at the paintings. It is incredible to think that man created these, regardless of the time or tools available to him. These are sophisticated creations beyond credibility. But they are credible artifacts of early cro-magnon dipping his fingers in soot and juices and rendering the most amazing art. Don’t let the low rating of this movie stop you from enjoying some really amazing visuals.