Mr. Herzog saw the potential for 3D when he first visited the cave. He had to create his own, collapsible 3D equipment to fit through the hermetically sealed cave door, and it had to be manually adjusted for parallax depending on the distance to the image being filmed because access is via a walkway from which they could not stray. On the second visit they could use the knowledge from the first to gauge the length of extensions required to see images on the back side of pendant rocks and protrusions.
The end result is a 3D feast. The cave painters used the 3D shape of the rocks in the cave to give depth to their paintings. In one case the face of a ox is on one face of a rock and the flank of the beast corresponds to a bulge in the side of that same rock, around the corner, much as if you were viewing the animal. While the film and the paintings can be appreciated in 2D, the true artistry of the ancient painters can really only be appreciated in 3D, and Mr. Herzog was right to endure the extra hardship of lugging the 3D camera through the cave.
Bravo.
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--------------------------------------------"The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams"
(Directed by Werner Herzog, 2011)
--------------------------------------------
Given unprecedented access to the Chauvet Cave, a vast archeological repository located in the south of France, legendary director Werner Herzog and a minimal crew of four crawl through tunnels and balance on delicate metal catwalks, filming the extraordinary and breathtaking cave paintings found within. Herzog designed a lightweight, portable 3D camera, small enough to be brought into the cavern, so that he could capture the ways in which the ancient artists of Chauvet used the natural contours of the cave walls to enhance their artwork. Although often rough technically, it is the most meaningful use of 3D cinematography I have ever seen, placing viewers inside the space of the cave in a way that seems magical and unreal.
The Chauvet cave paintings were made over 30,000 years ago, depicting predatory animals such as bears and lions, as well as bison, rhinos, mammoths and perhaps most striking of all, a wall of beautifully rendered horses. The spiritual and artistic presence of these paintings is almost overwhelming, embued with primal, primordial history and an astonishing technical and aesthetic command: these pictures are both evocative and beautiful. Herzog approaches them reverently, and delights in their mystery, often shooting them in half-shadow or using moving, flickering light to suggest the rude torches used by their creators as well as the complete, total darkness that shrouded these powerful pictures for untold millennia. Throughout the film he intones in a soft European murmur, musing about the nature of human consciousness and the relationship of this ancient artwork to our own modern sensibilities: how much of the aesthetic and world view of this primitive culture do we carry about with us today? Some viewers may find the intellectualism and pretensions hard to take (as well as the often intrusive but oddly affecting score...) yet it is hard to deny the power of the subject.
You or I will never be able to go inside these caves -they are closely guarded by the French government -but in Herzog's film we can become immersed in them. Leaving the theater, walking in sunshine or under electric lights, you may marvel at the wonders that thirty thousand years of human life have brought the works of stone and steel, plastic and glass, the layer upon layer of habitation and roads, the planes in the sky and the optical magic that brings art to life in films such as this. And, like Herzog and his crew, you may find yourself swept up by the connections we still have to the stunning pictures that lay hidden inside a dark cave for far more time than civilization itself... it is truly miraculous.
A highly recommended, deeply moving film for the full effect see it in the theaters, if you can. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film reviews)
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Take everybody you know to see this film! It is one of those essential experiences like the first time your parents brought you to a zoo, the majestic Redwoods, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or an overnight camping trip when the nocturnal sounds and the stars are your only comforts or nightmares.Director Werner Herzog is one of those filmmakers "obsessed" with those "obsessed" with the hidden meaning of art. His "Fitzcarraldo" is a film about a genius (or a madman) who tries to journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle and introduce opera to the aborigine natives. In this film, Herzog lets all of us experience a forbidden, primitive, marvelous place The Chauvet caves of France. And on those deep, cavern walls is something spectacular. The first cave paintings made 32,000 years ago. Hidden in those dark caves, these paintings inspire wonder, fear, and awe. As the torches light up the animal pictures, the calcite crystals sparkle like a night sky.
Some geneticists argue that the modern human evolved when language began 50,000 years ago. So these paintings are darn close to that historic moment Yes, people may have talked in some primitive language...then...but now, people are communicating in an entirely different medium...painting.
There are some who can argue that these cave paintings are great symbolic pictures of art in the way that some of the best modern art paintings are. (There is even a painting of a bull embracing a woman echoes of Picasso's Minotaur). I will not disagree. The ice age lions are alert and ready, anxious to seize their prey. In another scene, we witness for the first time what a battle between rhinos looked like to our early ancestors. (They were probably fighting over sex just as humans do). The sense of movement in this cave art is thrilling. One example there is a rhinoceros with eight horns depicting its movement in time.
Herzog makes the intelligent choice of filming these caverns in 3 dimensions. You are....there. Sure we have all seen some 3D films but this time it makes a difference. That is, the cave paintings are not placed on straight surfaces, so the shapes of the walls are essential to the art. For example, the curve of a wall might define the back of an animal. Another painting of a horse is framed by a heart shaped niche. We all know that a photograph of Michelangelo's "David" is nothing like the real thing...and these paintings are part sculpture and part painting. To appreciate the cave art, we must experience them as they looked to the communities for which they were created.
There are mythologists such as Joseph Campbell who can help us to understand the religious or ceremonial importance of these cave paintings. But they are still a mystery. Since it is impossible for us to go see the caves in person, Director Herzog let's us see the caves as best as we can.
To miss this film is to miss something basic to our humanity. Go see it.
Honest reviews on Cave of Forgotten Dreams
--------------------------------------------"The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams"
(Directed by Werner Herzog, 2011)
--------------------------------------------
Given unprecedented access to the Chauvet Cave, a vast archeological repository located in the south of France, legendary director Werner Herzog and a minimal crew of four crawl through tunnels and balance on delicate metal catwalks, filming the extraordinary and breathtaking cave paintings found within. Herzog designed a lightweight, portable 3D camera, small enough to be brought into the cavern, so that he could capture the ways in which the ancient artists of Chauvet used the natural contours of the cave walls to enhance their artwork. Although often rough technically, it is the most meaningful use of 3D cinematography I have ever seen, placing viewers inside the space of the cave in a way that seems magical and unreal.
The Chauvet cave paintings were made over 30,000 years ago, depicting predatory animals such as bears and lions, as well as bison, rhinos, mammoths and perhaps most striking of all, a wall of beautifully rendered horses. The spiritual and artistic presence of these paintings is almost overwhelming, embued with primal, primordial history and an astonishing technical and aesthetic command: these pictures are both evocative and beautiful. Herzog approaches them reverently, and delights in their mystery, often shooting them in half-shadow or using moving, flickering light to suggest the rude torches used by their creators as well as the complete, total darkness that shrouded these powerful pictures for untold millennia. Throughout the film he intones in a soft European murmur, musing about the nature of human consciousness and the relationship of this ancient artwork to our own modern sensibilities: how much of the aesthetic and world view of this primitive culture do we carry about with us today? Some viewers may find the intellectualism and pretensions hard to take (as well as the often intrusive but oddly affecting score...) yet it is hard to deny the power of the subject.
You or I will never be able to go inside these caves -they are closely guarded by the French government -but in Herzog's film we can become immersed in them. Leaving the theater, walking in sunshine or under electric lights, you may marvel at the wonders that thirty thousand years of human life have brought the works of stone and steel, plastic and glass, the layer upon layer of habitation and roads, the planes in the sky and the optical magic that brings art to life in films such as this. And, like Herzog and his crew, you may find yourself swept up by the connections we still have to the stunning pictures that lay hidden inside a dark cave for far more time than civilization itself... it is truly miraculous.
A highly recommended, deeply moving film for the full effect see it in the theaters, if you can. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film reviews)
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