Cave of Forgotten Dreams

This is a documentary shot by director Werner Herzog (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Rescue Dawn) in 3D. With only limited time and access, he explores the Chauvet Caves in southern France.

See the book Cro-Magnon pages 142-151 by Bryan Fagan, 2010, which includes a more academic discussion of Chauvet cave and includes several excellent images. Bryan Fagan is a well known archaeologist and writer of reviews and books on archaeological subjects and climate change.

Scientist guessing and using there imagination is not work. This movie has nothing but guesses and a lot of fiction.

Werner Herzog, director of stunning documentaries such as Grizzly Man or Encounters at the End of the World but also movies like Rescue Dawn, gains access to the Chauvet Cave, a cave located in France that was discovered in 1994 and since then has been closed with only a restricted group of top scientists having access to it once a year: since it holds 32000 years old paintings created by Paleolithic humans inside, which are by far the oldest ever known. Herzog captures the paintings beautifully while interviewing local scientists ,archaeologists and other characters to help us understand the story of its cave: the paintings creators, when were they exactly painted and what kind of animals inhabited the cave through this millenia span...

Shot entirely in 3-D, we enter the cave exactly as the filmmakers did and just as the handful of scientists did when they first discovered it. The Chauvet cave is located in Southern France and was discovered in 1994, perfectly preserved for 20,000 years.

***I don't really think this contains spoilers, but I've listed it that way just in case - hard to tell what people consider to be spoilers for a doco!*** A short review on "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" by Werner Herzog There are some truly moving moments in this film, the artwork is just impossibly beautiful, and the score is fantastic and varied.

I was initially drawn to this film after stumbling across the director's previous documentary, Grizzly Man, which won me over to his eccentric and off-beat style. But despite his attempts to find and showcase more engaging weirdos to frame his narrative, nothing can outshine the amazing visuals of the Chauvet Cave.

Three stars for the 3D visual experience, zero stars for the content. It is a truly amazing experience to have the brief glimpse into some of what was going on in the human mind some 30 – 40 thousand years ago.

I consider myself a mild and even handed person who is not prone to overtly strong opinions, however this film was horrifically bad! I am completely staggered by the positive reception this film has received.