I saw Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams at the Toronto Film Festival last year and in my review I wrapped things up saying:
Cave of Forgotten Dreams isn’t an altogether masterpiece (it certainly gets a bit tiresome and a bit too ponderuous), but it’s entertaining enough to be considered a worthwhile watch. I anticipate audiences will be simultaneously in awe of the cave paintings as much as they sit back and ponder, laugh and rejoice in Herzog’s interpretations.
One of the biggest issues I had was with the 3D when Herzog resorts to using a handheld camera outside the titular Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc cave. As I wrote, the “small bushes and branches play with your eyes in three dimensions confusing your vision to the point you’re almost cross-eyed.” Seriously, it got to the point I just had to shut my eyes for a bit and regain my center.
The film, however, and its inspiration, is quite fascinating as Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc caves of southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their natural setting taking us back in time over 30,000 years. Then there’s also the curious postscript featuring albino crocodiles warmed by radioactive water that completes the package, but I’ll leave that for you to find out more on your own should you decide to check out Cave of Forgotten Dreams when it hits theaters on April 29.
For now, here’s the trailer and if you’d like to read my TIFF review click here.
