I’ve always had a fascination with the beginnings of things: the origins of the universe, the origins of humans, the origins of art… So cave paintings have always been really fascinating to me. And so the upcoming 3D documentary about the Chauvet Cave in southern France certainly grabbed my attention. Cave of Forgotten Dreams, brings the audience along with Werner Herzog (Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Grizzly Man) as the filmmaker and a two-man crew explore the cave, intercut with interviews with scientists and historians.
The use of 3D is genius, because in these paintings, the artists would often incorporate the form of the walls into their paintings — a bulge in the rock could turn into part of a rhinoceros, for instance. That extra dimension is lost in photographs of the paintings, so 3D is the closest thing to actually seeing them in person.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September and is set for release this spring. Time will tell, but I don’t expect it to be widely distributed; the number of art-house theaters with 3D projectors can’t be that great. (via The Playlist)
I ment to catch this when it was in town.(yes SOMEONE lives within a short distance of the TIFF lightbox, feel free to envy away) but I hope it’ll run again here. Combines two of my favorite things, caves and art. Generally stuff that premieres in Toronto comes back, and we have a couple of theatres that have both 3d and run art films, if only for a few weeks.
I remember when I was in highschool volunteering at TIFF was basically an allowed reason to sortof skiv off the first few weeks of class (it was an arts and drama school)
Werner Herzog…did he manage not to kill any of his crew for this one?