Director: Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu)
Writer: Werner Herzog
Producer: Erik Nelson
MPAA Rating: G
Running time: 90 min.

(4.5/5)

We all know the masses are (finally!) starting to get worn from the cinematic replication of three dimensions by forcing us to wear glasses and pay more money just to get a headache inducing picture that is dimmer and blurrier than a standard movie. The reasons are varied from shitty up-conversion to gimmicky B-class movies. But leave it to a legend in his own time, someone like Werner Herzog for example, to look at a technological tool and ask, “how can I use this tool in a way that will legitimately be of benefit to the audience? How can I give them something they’d never be able to see otherwise and something that actually needs to be shown with depth and perspective in order to show meaning and heart; as opposed to a flying fish or a sword fight?”

Now granted, Herzog may have just gotten lucky with the fact that people (at least anyone for a couple of generations) literally won’t ever be able to see these caves again with their own eyes. The cave of forgotten dreams (Chauvet Cave in Southern France) is to be sealed up and away from any prying eyes of the public for the foreseeable future. So this is it folks. If you’d like to see an astonishing piece of history, this is your last chance; and his name is Werner Herzog.

In 1994 a group of French scientists and explores discovered these caves in the South of France and found them to be like any other: beautiful, but typical. Exploring deeper into the cave however, they soon came across fantastic, artful drawings that transcend and changed anything anyone knew about art history leading up to that point. The drawings were apparently sketches from two separate time periods. The first about 33,000+ years ago and then some more “advanced” artistry over the top of those that are dated roughly 25,000-27,000 years old.

The artistry at work here is 1000′s of years ahead of it’s time; literally. While other “tribes” were drawing stick figures, these images show movement, depth and seemingly a knowledge of texture theory. The artist(s) was able to use the contours, bulges and protrusions of the cave to help give the illusion of mass and movement. The use of motion blur and repetitive imagery is seamlessly used to give an almost “proto-cinema,” as Herzog says.

Many of the drawings within the cave seemed to be all done by the same person and the film goes into explaining how we know this. There is some other discussions with scientists about how things within the cave came to be and some ramblings about culture, religion and techniques of ancient man. But mostly, this is simply a visual marvel and has a strangely beautiful tone set throughout; partially created by the haunting (almost ethereal) score, but also from the vibe the cave gives off – even sitting in a lush theater with a coke in one hand and plastic glasses stuck to your face.

And here is where the 3D really takes affect. Rather than used to throw things at the audience or draw our eye to a specific location on screen, it’s here to provide perspective and as gracefully as possible give us the feeling of actually being in a large vaulted “room” with edges and obstacles of varying sizes and shapes. It’s important to feel the concave walls that depict a large bison or mammoth. We need to see the image of an ibex as it’s head rounds a corner. These things are imperative to experiencing the drawing as they were intended. Best of all, while there is plenty of “Herzogian” narration in which he talks about his own feelings and postulates about what various people and animals might have been doing in the cave, there are many moments in which the camera simply lingers and let’s us enjoy the drawings and the beauty of the cave on our own terms. There’s a bit of dramatic flair thrown at as us with some creative light movements and melodramatic score but we’re allowed to meditate and think about whatever we want to think about: history, art, mankind’s existence, geology, spiritualism, or anything else that may grace your imagination.

Herzog does a fantastic job at getting the shots he needs with such limited resources. Only four crew members are allowed in the cave at a time and for a very short amount of time. The crew is required to stay only on the man made gantry as to not disturb or destroy any of the natural formations that have taken thousands of years to take shape. Lighting is obviously limited in here too and only small battery powered lights can be utilized. And while cameras today have gotten smaller more efficient, it still must be difficult to get the shots needed to make a feature length film with such limited space and bulky equipment (especially for a feature in 3D!).

The film does have one or two shortcomings. For some, there is a scene near the beginning that might be hard to take in. It’s a scene in which it’s obvious a very cheaply made camera is being used to film the scaling of the hillside. It’s handheld, therefore very annoyingly shaky and fast panning. Also for no apparent reason the camera spins upside down and wanders across uninteresting terrain and faces. When acclimating audiences to 3D, this was a weird and off-putting stylistic choice that should have just been cut – especially since it was not showing or discussing anything of much interest.

Second, there are a few talking head segments scattered throughout the film. Most are interesting and necessary with energetic and charismatic people, but one dealing with a perfume master talking about the smell within the cave and his role in helping to plan a realistic replica of the cave for some sort of amusement park for tourists (which incidentally sounds like a terrible idea to me – I’d rather watch this film again than go to that). He’s a bit quirky and squirrelly looking, so perhaps this is why Herzog felt the need to include him, but to me it was kind of boring and of little importance.

In the end, this is a must see in theaters. There is a 2D version floating around but if at all possible see this as intended: in 3D. For someone who loathes the very idea of 3D in almost all cases, coming from me this is high praise indeed. It’s not just the drawings either. I really think some of the definition in the crystallized skeletons of creatures left untouched for millenia would be lost without the use of 3D.

I really feel like I was given a special experience that I probably won’t ever get to have again.