96% Cave of Forgotten Dreams

I'm not really sure what this documentary was getting at, to be honest. Is it a straightforward Natural History Museum-type informatic about a rare and wondrous cave, with but a few shots of Paleolithic artwork to its name? Or is it saying something larger about the evolution/mutation of humanity, of human's basal need for the creation of art and what's more, the pointless search for our roots? I really wanted to love this documentary, for all its characteristic Herzog weirdness: his humor, the circus performer-turned-archaeologist dreaming of lions, the stately curator of Paleolithic art swinging her behind to and fro like some messenger torn down from the deities. But then, the camera lingered over the stupid horses one too many times, I actually had to learn about real ancient art for a change, and suddenly its wobbily constructed reality tumbled down into a Discovery channel-type special. But was that its original point? It's hard to say. For instance, I read in the NYT that Manohla didn't like the albino crocodiles in the nuclear power plant during the film's postscript, but for me, they were the most riveting out of the 90 minutes I was there, in addition to the primitive cries of "They were here!" at the start. I like the concept of repetition for the sake of repetition, for the sake of looking at a group of cave paintings in entirely different ways and perspectives and realizing that they don't actually represent you at all. But, I don't know. It just seemed to falter in a lot of places, like he didn't have enough source material to fill in all the time. Sort of the opposite of "Encounters at the End of the World," where I felt like he could have a bevy of other crazy individuals and animals to interview.

April 29, 2011

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cave_of_forgotten_dreams/

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