(cross-posted on Duane’s Lapis Loquens blog)
Two weeks ago David Licata filed an enthusiastic EC post about Werner Herzog’s new documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. See trailer here. I had planned to see this and David’s post only whetted my appetite. As soon as it opened in Seattle, I jumped on it. Even if you consider your residence some sort of safe cave that you rarely leave, I urge you to get out of there for at least a few hours and go see the cave that Herzog devotes this film to. Prepare to be amazed.
Chauvet cave and its treasure trove was discovered in 1994 in southern France by three spelunkers. I first learned about the cave from a 2008 article by Judith Thurman in The New Yorker (June 23 issue). Earlier that year Thurman visited several caves in France to see their Paleolithic art first-hand. She did visit the Chauvet site but couldn’t actually go in that cave because access is so tightly restricted. Thurman’s article was fascinating. I immediately bought two books she had consulted, The Cave Painters by Gregory Curtis and a sumptuous oversized art book, Cave Art by Jean Clottes. I recommend both, particularly the latter for its production values and beauty.
I mention Ms. Thurman because another reader of that New Yorker article was Werner Herzog, and while I was only motivated to buy two books, Herzog got so stirred up that he went out and made the knock-down brilliant film that was just released. (Thurman received co-producer film credit, whatever that means; I’m never sure.)
In France Thurman visited Jean Clottes, former director of the Chauvet site and one of the leading, if controversial, figures in the field; controversial because, as Thurman reports, he posits that the cave art represents “the experience of shamans or initiates on a vision quest to the underworld, where spirits gathered. The caves served as a gateway, and their walls were considered porous.” I confess that Clottes’s theory arouses a certain nostalgia for journeys made during 1960s-counterculture. Clottes told Thurman, “Everyone agrees that the paintings are, in some way, religious. I’m not a believer myself, and I’m certainly not a mystic. But Homo sapiens is Homo spiritualis. The ability to make tools defines us less than that need to create belief systems that influence nature.” Baba Ram Dass, where are you?
Perhaps the biggest obstacle Herzog faced was gaining permission from the French government to even enter the cave. Thurman thought that would be a non-starter. But the buoyant German director overcame French resistance. He was allowed in, with just a few minor restrictions:
• Only three people could accompany him in the cave (Herzog himself operated the lights, which were specially designed to emit low heat)
• Only hand-carried battery-powered equipment could be used
• Time in the cave: six shooting days of four hours each
• No part of the cave’s walls or floor could be touched
• The crew was confined to a two-foot wide elevated walkway
Okay, ready, now go.
And just to make it a worthy challenge, Herzog elected to shoot in 3D. I am no great fan of 3D, but in this case I endorse it. You and I will never be able to go inside the Chauvet cave. 3D footage is the next best thing because it allows us to see how the artists exploited the natural contours of the cave walls; a lion’s haunch juts out just where it should because the haunch appears on a bulge in the rock.
To an aesthete such as Herzog, the cave was like pollen to a bee. The camera buzzes all over this subterranean art museum. Herzog often gets carried away by his own enthusiasm, but that enthusiasm is part of the movie’s charm. I found it easy to forgive the director when he goes over the top, such as inserting a film clip of Fred Astaire casting shadows on a wall while dancing. Where was Ginger?
The cave’s art spans an estimated seven millennia, from 32,000 to 25,000 years ago. Something wondrous happened to our species around 40,000 years ago. We call the people who inhabited this part of Europe the Cro-Magnons. They came from central and eastern Europe and were of Middle Eastern origin, following their ancestors who had migrated north out of Africa millennia earlier. The first evidence of Neanderthals dates to about 200,000 years ago and they disappeared 30,000 years ago. Cro-Magnon’s time and territory in Europe overlapped some with these Neanderthals who had arrived much earlier. Cro-Magnons were people like us, with the same brain, physical appearance, nervous system and cognition.
Here’s what fascinates me: In no locations of Neanderthal habitation has any evidence of art been found. Yet, as these caves powerfully demonstrate, art flourished with Cro-Magnons. What neurological and aesthetic switch got turned on and how, between the Neanderthals and us?
You look at some of Picasso’s art and the huge gap in time between these Cro-Magnons and us collapses. Picasso, when visiting Paleolithic art in another famous French cave, Lascaux, told his guide, “They’ve invented everything.”
I am moved by how old and how deep runs the human need to express ourselves through art. Not that every human creates art, but we all possess the capacity for awe and wonder and appreciation. When we experience superior art we sense that the artist is speaking to each of as an individual but also to our entire species, transcending geography, culture, religion and, as we see in this film, time. Herzog captures a profound thread that connects our ancient ancestors with us who briefly walk on the planet today.
