Cave of Forgotten Dreams

The cave art inside Chauvet caves is truly awe-inspiring and watching it in 3D added real gravity to what we are being shown. However, Herzog is slipping as the documentary itself is mostly tedious. In reaching to build a connection to the world outside the cave he meanders through repetition, at times puts his words in the mouths of those being interviewed. Mostly it sits as filler between moments of wonder, and his final thoughts are fairly muddled. It art is wholly remarkable, the doco wholly forgetable.

Werner Herzog is given intimate access to the earliest instance of cave painting known to modern man, the Chauvet Cave in southern France. It's a mesmerizing topic, but after the third or fourth time the screen pans dramatically across the same six sketches, it's clear that elaboration just isn't in the cards. Rather than using these caves as a jumping-off point to discuss early man and his habit of cave painting in general, Herzog stands in place and explores the particulars of these specific illustrations. Which is his prerogative, granted, and fully excusable if he's able to find enough meat to justify the narrow perspective. Ultimately he doesn't, though, and his long, dull conversations with the local team of researchers only further belabor a struggling theme. Dry and emotionless as a textbook with just one or two moments of wonder, it's too much for a TV episode and too little for a feature-length documentary.