3 reasons to watch «The Cave of Forgotten Dreams» by Werner Herzog

1. Rejection of the author’s ego. Herzog was chosen by the French Ministry of Culture to shoot in the Chauvet caves, where rock paintings were discovered in amazing safety, even though they were made 32 years ago. The presence of a person and lighting equipment can damage artifacts, so no other filming was allowed. Herzog, a modern classic, was given special credit. And he filmed, even in 3D, so that we could see how our ancestors lived … Well, in general, that’s all. We saw. From that Herzog, who shot «Aguirre, the Wrath of God» and «Grizzly Man», who spent his whole life researching the boundaries of humanity and the human in a person, you expect more, if you like, existential. But Herzog was guided by the noblest feeling — he made the film not to show himself, but for people to watch. And when you look, the three-dimensional screen literally breathes nobility.

2. 3D as a moral category. Usually, the increased spectacle imparted to the film by this technology has a purely entertaining purpose. But with Herzog it becomes a moral, enlightening force. And, peering at the drawings on the rock, you suddenly realize very clearly that all you need to do is to see the world as clearly as the authors of those drawings saw it — as a mysterious, but beautiful place that requires not conquest, but habitation.

3. Our contemporaries. They are in the film, and it is in some of them that Herzog sees the continuation of those who worked 30 thousand years ago. With poorly concealed amazement, he talks with an old archaeologist and with a young cave keeper, a former circus performer … And although he does not allow any authorial tricks, we see in them that eternal gene of creative recklessness, which, perhaps, created man.

Victoria Belopolskaya