Werner
Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a
fascinating journey back in time. In this case,
we are not talking about fifty or one hundred
years, but 32,000 years in the past to discover
a unique collection of cave art situated in the
Chauvet-Pont-d Arc Cave in the Ardéche
region of Southern France. Discovered in 1994,
the paintings are considered to be one of the
most important prehistoric examples of cave art.
Called the Chauvet cave after one of the first
cave explorers, Jean-Marie-Chauvet, the site
contains more than 400 excellent quality painted
or engraved animals from the Paleolithic period,
including depictions of mammoths, lions,
rhinoceroses, bisons, horses, bears and other
animals, many of which are now extinct. Though
Herzog claims the region was in the throes of an
ice age and was very cold, game animals like
lions and rhinos seem to have been incongruously
present.
In addition to the wall paintings deep inside
the cave, there are also tracks in the floor
including one of a small child, paw prints,
fossilized remains including skulls of cave
bears, and an ibex (a wild goat), and even
wooden flutes in which one of the scientists
played “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Using red
ochre and charcoal emulsion, the Paleolithic
artists created hand prints, hand stencils,
abstract markings, figures shaped with dots, and
many unidentified images. Sealed by a rock slide
20,000 years ago, the site has been immaculately
preserved. Since a large influx of tourists
might raise the humidity inside the caves
leading to the growth of mold on the walls
potentially destroying the art, the cave has
been seized and sealed by the French government
and barred to the public by an iron door. The
government has announced, however, that an exact
replica will be built near the site for public
viewing.
Filmed in 3-D, Cave of Forgotten Dreams offers
the melodious narration of Werner Herzog
providing a sense of mystery as only Herzog can
do, the other-worldly music of cellist Ernst
Reijseger - a Herzog regular, and interviews
with archaeologists, paleontologists, and other
scientists and historians. Though the 3-D
technique magnifies and enhances the paintings
for close-up viewing beautifully, the technique
is not as successful in depicting outdoor
scenery, albino Crocodiles in a biosphere near a
nuclear plant, or interviews with scientists. In
typical romantic fashion, Herzog calls the
Chauvet cave the place "where the modern human
soul was awakened." Though it is repeatedly said
in the film and elsewhere that the Chauvet caves
are the oldest examples of prehistoric art in
the world, what is left unsaid is that there may
have been hundreds if not thousands of other
examples of Paleolithic art that have been lost
and may indeed have been much older.
In fact, in 2000, Science magazine reported that
cave paintings found in northern Italy at Fumane
that fell from the cave roof were embedded in
floor sediments dated to between 32,000 and
36,000 years ago. Even then, it is impossible to
know how long the paintings remained intact on
the ceiling before they fell to the floor.
Indeed, we can even go back 77,000 years to find
the earliest piece of abstract art in the world
- a small ochre slab engraved with a
cross-hatched grid in the Blombos cave in South
Africa. Herzog seems to give the impression that
the cave paintings at Chauvet are unique, even
though similar cave paintings from the same
period have been discovered in Germany at
Vogelhared, Hohlenstien-Stadel,
Geissenklosterle, and Hohle-fels as well as in
Spain, Australia, and as far away as Southern
Africa.
Herzog says that the greatest mystery is who
these people are and asks, “What do they think?,
Do they cry at night?” The bigger mystery,
however, is ignored. This is the widespread
depictions of half-man, half beast creatures,
known as therianthropes, visible in caves all
over the world. Granted that the film is not
about cave art in general, but about the
paintings in a particular location, it should be
pointed out that a bison-man hanging suspended
from the ceiling at Chauvet matches closely the
outline of a bison-man in the cave of El
Castillo in northern Spain thought to be dated
15,000 years ago, an incredible span of 17,000
years separating the two. No explanation of
these figures and their precise relationship
with the naturalistic images of animals has ever
been accepted, and remains one of the major
unsolved mysteries of cave art.
Anthropologist David-Lewis Williams has
suggested, however, that cave art may be an
indication of shamanistic practices - paintings
by functionaries in the society with an ability
to enter the spirit world and control altered
states of consciousness. Whatever their origin
and purpose (something we may never know), the
art of Chauvet is a wonder, not because it is
the oldest, but because of the stunning use of
expressive techniques as in the utilization of
curved rock formations creating the impression
of movement, and the use of perspective and
shadows in painting a group of horses and the
clashing of two rhinos. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
not only captures the immense power of art that
dates to the dawn of man's history, but infuses
it with a profound spiritual presence. It is a
remarkable achievement and Herzog's best film in
years.
