Werner Herzog is an amazing man. He seems to be an amazing thrill-seeker when it comes to films--and the more difficult and inaccessible the shoot the better! I am not just talking about his famous South American tales "Fitzcarraldo" and "Aguirre: The Wrath of God"--though they are infamous for how treacherous and uncomfortable the filming had been. As a documentarian, Herzog has made trips to the desert and even Antarctica! And so, his going cave exploring is, in a way, pretty routine for this master of the logistically impossible!!

I have no idea how Herzog finagled it, but he managed to convince some officials in the French government to allow him and a tiny crew to have access to a recently discovered treasure. It seems yet another amazing cave has been discovered in the Rhône Valley in Southeastern France. Now I am NOT just talking about stalactites and stalagmites....no, these caves are MUCH more important because they are filled with petroglyphs--ancient cave drawings by folks who have been dead many millenia. However, this is NOT an easy shoot. This is because other more famous caves have literally been destroyed by repeated human contact--and now those cave drawings are faded and distorted after remaining pristine all these many, many centuries. So, the government has allowed them inside ONLY under very, very specific circumstances--with guides, using only metal walkways created in the tunnels and only for a few hours a day for a couple weeks (at most) using minimal necessary recording equipment---all to guarantee that the cave will be recorded but also undisturbed. So, the audience is able to see something in this film that they cannot possibly see any other way, as only a tiny number of scientists have been allowed inside AND the place now has a vault-like door! My immediate impression of the Chauvet Cave's paintings is surprise--surprise at how expertly crafted these works of art are. These are NOT just graffiti by some yahoos thousands of years ago--and the people who did this had great artistic talent. Seeing their perspective and skills was impressive--and in many ways reminiscent of modern artists like Picasso--who have deliberately imitated or paid a homage to ancient artists.

Much of the film consists of shots of inside the cave. However, it is not just video but consists of lots of interesting interviews, narration by Herzog (which was very personal and fascinating--he's a brilliant raconteur) and a neat digitized map of the cave. I cannot imagine how anyone could have made this much better. Even with a few slightly slow moments, it's still a wonderful film--and a terrific glimpse into primordial man.

Documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog gets special access to the Chauvet Cave in southern France that has some of the oldest painted images ever. A landslide sealed up the cave in ancient times and only rediscovered in 1994. It is calculated to date back as much as 32,000 years ago.

The cave has an immersive quality about it. I watched it in 2D and can only imagine how 3D would put the audience inside the cave. As always, Herzog is narrating this with his disembodied breathless accented voice. This is more akin to taking a tour of an art gallery while listening to Herzog's commentary. I would have liked more science about the people of the region at the time. Herzog is less concerned about hard science and injects a good amount of poetic ponderings. That's Herzog's style and one can't expect a detailed scientific examination. It does have a compelling moody feel as the shadows almost give a sense of ghostly presences.

There are some good examples of documentaries that have featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I hoped this one directed by Werner Herzog (Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man) would be another good one. Basically in 1994 in Southern France a cave perfectly preserved for over 20,000 years was discovered by scientists, it contains the earliest known human paintings and images yet discovered, this was named the Chauvet Cave, after scientist Jean- Marie Chauvet. With the cultural significance the French government immediately cut-off all access to it, only allowing a few scientists, archaeologists and paleontologists to document it. Director Werner Herzog has been granted a limited amount of time and access to the cave, he is one of only a few allowed to film inside, he examines the beautiful artwork created by our ancestors over 32,000 years ago, some of which despite being centuries old looks fresh. Herzog asks questions to various historians and scientists during his journey about what the humans who visited, but never lives, in the caves would have been like and trying to build a bridge from the past to the present. The title comes from the fact that these hand drawn images were forgotten obviously, and some of the imagery is like something out of dreams, the narration by Herzog throughout has strange philosophy and meaning, but you can ignore this somewhat, the most interesting thing about this film is of course the ancient discovery and the fascinating things to see inside the cave, so it's a worthwhile enough documentary film. Good!