Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

julsmul Werner Herzog's 2010 documentary; Cave of Forgotten Dreams is my second favorite documentary of all I've seen so far, being beaten only by his 2007 documentary, Encounters At The End Of The World. Werner explores Chauvet Cave, a recently discovered cave in Southern France which contains cave paintings, bones, and footprints of men and animals from 32,000 years ago.Tone is crucial to a film, and Werner does an outstanding job in capturing a very unique tone and maintaining it through the whole documentary. Although the film revolves around archaeology and other scientific studies, its tone brings an air of mysticism that leaves viewers feeling as if they are traveling through time and truly connecting with the many prehistoric painters of the featured mind- bending artwork. In my many viewings with others, this combination has never failed in holding the attention and interest of even those that dislike documentaries.The music is superb and breathes life into the film's equally superb cinematography. Like the tone, it captivates viewers minds using soft choir, piano, and wind instruments and offers a deeper perspective of Werner's slow-pan shots over the cave art. Much of the film contains long, un-narrated segments of just this camera-work with the music, and while sounding boring, those segments are actually my favorite parts. Of the entire soundtrack, I can recommend "Rockshelter," "Child's Footprint Duo," and "Carbon Date" as my favorites.The science presented in this documentary is also very interesting. Werner delves into the cave's history with passion, and every aspect, from carbon dating to a prehistoric man's crooked little finger, is thoroughly explored in his analysis. As per Werner's style, the scientists and experts featured in the film also present their inner opinions about the cave and what amazing dreams drive them to continue their work.If there is gripe I've heard quite often about this film, it's usually the postscript. For many, the ending is confusing, opinionated, and a sudden, jarring change from the rest content. However, I feel that it is because Werner offers his opinions that his documentaries are so enthralling. Werner has a very unique perspective, and, for me, it always provides a new insight into the topic of discussion. The message can be understood with some thought and makes for a very decent concluding thought on the Cave of Forgotten Dreams.Conclusively, Werner Herzog's documentary is an experience best lived with an open, curious mind. Werner does not make generic documentaries, and his style isn't for everyone; however, with the right perspective, I feel that Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a beautiful piece of art that deserves a deeper look from those who dislike it.I'm giving it a 9/10. Otherwise, what would I rate Encounters At The End Of The World?

johnmkirby I don't usually write reviews. In fact I don't think I've ever written one. My basic comments are similar to others I've seen here. The basic story of this cave art (assuming everything to be legitimate) is very interesting. But to most of us, this is probably a 5-10 minute story. The images are immediately stunning; but unless you are fascinated by the minutiae of artwork, it can't justify 60+ minutes. There are only so many times I can see the same horses, rhinos and lions etc. Then to boot, they tried to add some "filler" (e.g. interviews of people outside the cave), but the filler is very tangential and of borderline value. E.g. one guy who looks for caves by sniffing the air; with no suggestion that this actually works. And a former circus-worker theorizing about ancient art (based on a very loosely-relevant story about Australian art). And a guy explaining hunting with the atlatl (without using the term), with no real connection to the cave. I would have been interested in e.g. the actual finding of the cave itself (e.g. an interview of the persons who found it, or original accounts); or e.g. a scientific discussion of how we know that this is legitimate and not a hoax (aside from one very brief comment about some sort of growth over the art supposedly proving that it's real). Or heck, even of how they built that walkway in the cave without disturbing the surrounding floor. And there's not even any discussion of the absence of people (predominately) from the artwork. So it seems like there is other "filler" that might have worked (i.e. relevant and interesting filler). Nuff said I guess.

davesf This film has excellent photography, especially considering the technical challenges. The evocative title ("Cave of Forgotten Dreams") is inspired, and well reflected throughout. A haunting theme. It's a beautifully decorated cave (quite aside from the prehistoric art). However, the editing is not good; there's a lot of redundancy, odd sequencing, and too long overall. And some of the dialog is rather hokey.I also had a hard time figuring out exactly where the cave is, even after looking it up on the 'net (finally succeeded using its GPS coordinates). It's another editing defect, I think. M. Herzog should have thrown in a minute or two of orientation at the beginning.Anyway, I was more familiar with some of the other splendid cave art sites (Lascaux, Altamira), but Chauvet appears to be the greatest of all. It's a more recent find, which is why I was ignorant. I'm grateful to the film for its beauty and educational value.

Heitor Caramez The cultural significance of art work is whatever that is, what we arbitrarily give as value to those paintings, subjectively we are ought to create it's meaning, the paintings of the Chauvet caves in the South of France, doubtlessly have survived the test of time and it is easy to acknowledge them and to tell on their importance on art history, but what can we do or say as confronted by a Forty Thousand year cave painting that is particularly beautiful and impressive by so many aspects. "In a forbidden recess of the cave, there's a footprint of an eight- year-old boy next to the footprint of a wolf. Did a hungry wolf stalk the boy? Or did they walk together as friends? Or were their tracks made thousands of years apart? We'll never know." One of the Herzog's narrations on the movie that goes to show a lot about the role of imagination and narration on the making of history. The imagination also has skin and bones, it has happened also. Any work of art confront us with something to recognize, something to get, I guess most people can find themselves on indifference, or angst or anger, when confronted by an work of art that rings no bells, that pulls no confrontation, that leaves us there, staring, in the riddle of our own souls. It is important to notice that all the archaeologists, the art curators, the historians, even with all the technology, that enables them to make all the assumptions on history, on how their lives were, on what were the reasons for the paintings and how they were produced. We are still driven to a fundamental questions, that might be key to understanding the importance of art in our modern culture and the understanding of the power that imagination and art plays in weave the very own fabric of our lives.And that what it is left to do for all the people interviewed in the movie, fantasies of understanding, what this knowing that we share it is all about, and each one of them in their own uniqueness make their story about it, through a variety of means, the nose and smelling being one of the funniest ones. I am not sure if a traditional history TV channel would be able to show all the quirks of it's own subject matter, it takes courage to undermine and to be honest and frank on what it is being filmed, and that It is one of the characteristics that must be valued under the making of a documentary.It is Herzog methods, or just his personality, he can pick and choose what it is of more interest to him, he deliberately says and uses what got his attention, and drives the interviews to a sphere where he can confront people with his own sense of humor and his own inquisitions and interests of what he is trying to show, he is capable to show us, how laughable we can be, we can see bluntly the mechanisms that he uses when he asks for the archaeologist to not go get the sphere and asks him if he thought he could kill a horse with it. The idea that the cave man were of a different soul by the ex-circus man and archaeologist, that they had a different perspective on life, a different way understanding it, and the same for seeing and doing the art work that they have made. It reminded me a similar story I have heard about this indigenous person in a forest in Brazil, and he was very concerned on making fire, because soon the sun was going to set, the researches who wanted to walk as much as they could during daytime were not that worried of getting wood to make fire, one of the researcher tells that he them used his lighter to make the fire, and that in just one second there it was, this simple act somehow, this whole culture condensed in this little technology, were able in the indigenous eyes to make his whole world fall apart.So, when Herzog highlighted by what at first seen absurd and delirious connections on the albino crocodiles and the nuclear power plants, are really scary for the poetic and real inquiry that it is trying to make, simply by showing things that are actually there and putting one and one together and pushing us into seen, what a huge, and laughable project of society and humanity we can be. How far have we moved? All and all I think Herzog it is pretty funny, and I will finish with one more peace of narration he delivers as seeing some ancient human sculptures, "there seems to have existed a visual convention extending all the way beyond Baywatch".