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IMDbPro

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

  • 20102010
  • GG
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
17K
YOUR RATING
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.
Play trailer2:09
5 Videos
49 Photos
DocumentaryHistory
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
17K
YOUR RATING
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog
    • Judith Thurman(article)
  • Stars
    • Werner Herzog
    • Jean Clottes
    • Julien Monney
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog
    • Judith Thurman(article)
  • Stars
    • Werner Herzog
    • Jean Clottes
    • Julien Monney
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 99User reviews
    • 235Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos5

    Cave of Forgotten Dreams
    Trailer 2:09
    Watch Cave of Forgotten Dreams
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams: International Trailer
    Trailer 2:15
    Watch Cave of Forgotten Dreams: International Trailer
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Clip
    Clip 0:49
    Watch Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Clip
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams - "Movement"
    Clip 1:09
    Watch Cave of Forgotten Dreams - "Movement"
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams - "Authenticity"
    Clip 0:59
    Watch Cave of Forgotten Dreams - "Authenticity"

    Photos49

    Werner Herzog in Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Werner Herzog and Peter Zeitlinger in Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Werner Herzog in Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Werner Herzog in Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Werner Herzog and Peter Zeitlinger in Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Werner Herzog in Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Werner Herzog in Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Werner Herzog
    Werner Herzog
    • Self…
    Jean Clottes
    • Self
    Julien Monney
    • Self
    Jean-Michel Geneste
    • Self
    Michel Philippe
    • Self
    Gilles Tosello
    • Self
    Carole Fritz
    • Self
    Dominique Baffier
    • Self
    Valerie Feruglio
    • Self
    Nicholas Conard
    • Self
    Maria Malina
    • Self
    Wulf Hein
    Wulf Hein
    • Self
    Maurice Maurin
    • Self
    Valerie Milenka Repnau
      Charles Fathy
      Charles Fathy
      • Interpreter
      • (voice)
      • (uncredited)
      Volker Schlöndorff
      Volker Schlöndorff
      • Narrator (French version)
      • (voice)
      • (uncredited)
        • Werner Herzog
        • Werner Herzog
        • Judith Thurman(article) (uncredited)
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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      Storyline

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      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        According to cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger in his talk at the Berlinale Talents 2015, the first 20 minutes of the film are shot with two GoPro Hero cameras taped side-to-side (one upside down), because at the time of shooting no 3D-system small enough for the cave shoot was available. The rest of the film was shot on professional, higher-quality 2k 3D-cameras with follow-focus, when they later became available.
      • Quotes

        Werner Herzog: In a forbidden recess of the cave, there's a footprint of an eight-year-old boy next to the footprint of a wolf. Did a hungry wolf stalk the boy? Or did they walk together as friends? Or were their tracks made thousands of years apart? We'll never know.

      • Connections
        Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.15 (2011)
      • Soundtracks
        Rockshelter

      User reviews99

      Review
      Review
      Featured review
      Unforgettable
      Don't miss auteur Werner Herzog's memorable documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, about the French Chauvet Cave. It contains the earliest extant art work of humanity from over 30,000 years ago. Paleolithic renderings of animals such as horses, lions, and cave bears, some in motion as if early filmmaking ("a form of proto-cinema," Herzog says) are rendered so lifelike by the film that I'm satisfied to have gotten as close as is possible without damaging the environment.

      With special permission from the culture ministry and only a few hours per day, Herzog takes a non-professional 3-D camera and a few scientists and crew into the cave, which was sealed by a landslide some 20, 000 years ago and therefore in pristine shape. So careful are the French that they plan to construct a theme park with exact reproduction of the Cave in order to satisfy the public's natural interest in seeing the drawings but yet keep them from spoiling the treasures with their breaths.

      3-D aids appreciation of the curvatures of the caves and the rich dimensions of the drawings, about 400 of them, and the cave-bear fossils and scratches. Ernst Reijseger's understated orchestration complements the lyrical and mysterious world that Herzog's voice cradles.

      Because no one is allowed to walk outside the small walkway and few humans will ever enter, an eerie Egyptian tomb-like atmosphere pervades, captured by Herzog's pensive, wistful ruminations about mankind. For the director of such eccentric films as Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, both about mysteriously powerful humans, and similarly the documentary Grizzly, about an odd bear lover, this film is evidence of the filmmaker's wide-ranging zest for the inscrutable spiritual roots of secular achievement and madness.

      Of course, there's the romantic take by the French scientists and narrator Herzog, who all describe hearing the voices of these ancient homo-sapien artists echo in the chambers. Herzog's inscrutable post script, perfectly in character with this out-there director involves nuclear reactors, warm water, and thriving alligators. When you figure out his meaning of the doppelganging albino alligators, write me with your answer, for I'm still trying to figure it out.

      Meanwhile, Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a superior documentary with the right combination of visual clarity and authorial insight to make everlastingly memorable the forgotten dreams of our ancestors and ourselves.
      helpful•21
      9
      • jdesando
      • May 12, 2011

      Details

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      • Release date
        • August 31, 2011 (France)
        • Canada
        • United States
        • France
        • Germany
        • United Kingdom
        • Official Facebook (United Kingdom)
        • Official site (Germany)
        • English
        • German
        • French
      • Also known as
      • Filming locations
        • Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc, Ardèche, France
      • Production companies
        • Creative Differences
        • History Films
        • Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Box office

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      See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

      Technical specs

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      • 1 hour 30 minutes
        • Color
        • Dolby
        • Dolby Digital

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