Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011)

This is topic Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 06-07-2011, 10:39 AM:

A documentary film exploring the Chauvet-Pont-d’-Arc Cave in southern France, which, prior to its discovery in 1994, had not been entered in over 25,000 years.

Really a great movie, and the first outside of possibly Avatar where the 3D defiantly adds to the experience. The sensation of being inside the cave with the crew, looking at the incredible cave paintings and exploring the deep recesses, is really amazing. Some of the paintings are astonishing. One of them is of a bison that the artist drew with multiple legs; the curator explains that it was a crude attempt at depicting animation. At the far end of the cave there is the only actual human remnant, the footprint of a small boy made sometime in the Upper Paleolithic age, possibly the oldest human footprint known.

It would have been a great IMAX experience, but unfortunately the filmmakers were limited to the bare minimum of equipment, just three LED Litepanels and very small cameras, so things look a little compromised technically. Still, the 3D is done about as well as it could be under the circumstances, and is very tastefully handled (there is only one deliberate 3D joke, it comes toward the end of the film). Highly recommended, even in 2D.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 06-16-2011, 10:09 PM:

This film is a must-see, such a revelation to see our past so vividly preserved. The 3D is amazing, there's sometimes a refreshing total disgregard of the conventions of the format whereas some shots seem to revel in it. The structure of the documentary story and the presentation of the caves keeps you interested throughout.

You can't take Werner Herzog too seriously though. I giggled a fair bit throughout the flm (which pissed the other three people in the screen off I think), especially at some of the characters he finds to speak to. The epilogue is totally nuts.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-17-2011, 06:59 AM:

We ran the first "non-festival" showing of CAVE at IU Cinema and Jonathan Sehring - President of IFC Films - told the audience that the epilogue was a total fabrication by Herzog.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 06-17-2011, 09:35 PM:

Am I right in thinking he saw the location and subject of the epilogue and just wanted to shoot it and get it in the film somehow?