Director: Werner Herzog
Year Released: 2010
Rating: 2.0
Perpetual wanderer Herzog takes himself and his crew into the Chauvet cave in France, where some scientists discovered amazing wall paintings made some 35,000 years ago that were preserved by some rather extraordinary geological conditions. Despite Herzog's attempt to raise 'bigger questions' about our current society's relationship to the cave people who made the art, there isn't a whole lot to this picture: it feels like he was 'forced' to make this a feature length when a shorter running time was more fitting to the admittedly limited available material. The images of the cave are memorable the first few times he and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger go through them, but after that it simply seems like unnecessary padding. It doesn't help, either, that Herzog has a track record of taking on 'bigger' and zanier projects better suited for his meditations on life, art and madness - there are only so many ways to 'interpret' a sketch of a buffalo running.
