I’m glad I caught this documentary on the big screen as seeing it elsewhere wouldn’t quite do it justice. Credit filmmaker Werner Herzog for bringing a broader spotlight to the Chauvet cave in southern France, which has been closed to the public since it was discovered in 1994. I knew about the prehistoric art at France’s Les Eyzies and Lascaux caves, but didn’t know much about Chauvet’s, though its contents are dated to be about 15,000 years older and have been less disturbed than Lascaux’s. The cave’s entrance at Chauvet had been sealed by a landslide, and its contents had remained virtually untouched until its discovery. The cave paintings inside are the earliest known on Earth, dating from about 32,000 years ago.
Herzog’s documentary gives an awe-inspiring view inside the cave. The only light is powered by the film crew’s battery packs, which reveal hand prints, animal paintings and prehistoric animal bones amid the cave’s various chambers. A sense of wonder pervades the screen. Here is where our early ancestors came to paint and perhaps engage in ceremonial gatherings. What were they like? How did they live? The film spends a good deal of time examining the fascinating animal art on the walls and the cave’s contours looking for clues, as ominous or mysterious music plays in the background. In many of the paintings, the animals appear to be in motion, similar to drawings in animation. A number of the cave’s scientists appear in the film, giving insight into what their research has found; a couple of them come off more understandable or informative than others. One, for instance, explains that one of the rock artists, who left a hand print near the entrance, has a damaged finger and can be traced to another part of the cave as well.
For those interested in prehistory, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” offers a rarified, intriguing glimpse into the world of early man, where depictions of horses and cattle coincide with those of rhinos, lions and panthers, and hand prints coexist with cave bear bones and paw prints. It’s truly a world like no other.
For more on the cave at Chauvet, see Judith Thurman’s New Yorker article “First Impressions,” which prompted Herzog’s interest in the subject, and the official French site at: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/
