Had the great joy of seeing Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). In a word: intense. Fire and shadow. Innerworldly. Images that "transmit information across time." I got the chills, like a person seeing the monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for the first time, except this isn't fiction. This is the real thing. Human art from 25,000-32,000 years ago. Also in the cave (the Chauvet Cave) are traces of cave bears (including paw prints, scratch marks, skeletal remains and sleeping depressions), ibex, rhinos, horses, and even a child's footprints remain. An artist estimated to have been six feet tall dating perhaps to 30,000 B.C. left many painted handprints -- they
figure it's the same artist because of a crooked little finger.
Leave it to Herzog to be allowed inside the Chauvet Cave to film -- he's clearly an intrepid man who seems to often be making his own luck. Here he finds additional fascination with the various scientific and technical specialists investigating the cave, including people who've studied and recreated prehistoric vulture flutes, pointed weapons and furry clothing. Herzog fans will love it -- everything from dancing shadows to albino crocodiles -- or are they alligators? Beyond that, even a moderately curious person would probably find Cave of Forgotten Dreams pretty compelling.
Today's Rune: Signals.
4 comments:
Wow, I definitely want to see this. I imagine it'll give me chills as well.
sounds interesting
Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
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The Heart of a Chicken: Notes on Werner Herzog
Only Herzog could make a movie this good and still have it be only his second best film for the year ('Into the Abyss' edged it out, IMO). Did you get to see it in 3D?
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