The discovery of the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in Southern France in 1994 is every bit as exciting as any of the discoveries made in all those Indiana Jones films. However, rather than summarily nicking everything of value and triggering some sort of booby trap that collapses the whole place in ruins, those who discovered it immediately recognised its importance, and it has been kept under lock and key ever since. Indeed, the mythology of how this cave was found, and the remarkableness of what was within it, is enough to make this a must-see film. Let me be clear: it is not a particularly well-made film, and those people who don’t like Herzog’s vision will have all their fears confirmed, but the spectacle and wonderment of the cave itself more than compensates for any blunders he makes.
The paintings within the cave are the earliest known, dating back approximately 32,000 years. This was a time when long-since extinct creatures roamed the glacial fields of Europe, and humans and Neanderthals co-existed. The cave itself has been so well preserved only by chance, as a rock face collapsed 20,000 years ago, and protected it from the elements. Now, it is sealed again, but this time with a bank-vault like steel door. The government of France limits the number of visitors to the cave very, very strictly. Each year a handful of people are allowed in: artists, scientists, philosophers, and the like.
The cave sparkles under the gaze of the 3D cameras, quite literally, as the light from the crew’s torches illuminate the calcite stalactites and stalagmites that fill every corner. But it is the paintings that are the real stars here. There is the most famous of the paintings, a triptych of horses nestled in a niche near the entrance, which looks so fresh that it could have been painted 32 days ago, let alone 32,000 years. There are the paintings of cave bears, painted around, over, and under deep scratches made in the walls by previous cave bear inhabitants. Woolly mammoths, lions, leopards, rhinoceros, bison, and deer with impossibly large antlers, all seemingly move across the cave as the lights from the torches pass over them. It is hard not to be moved by the sheer beauty of the caves, and marvel at the stories told by the experts that have made astounding discoveries about life, and nature inside this space. It was discovered of one of the more interesting paintings, using carbon dating, there were in fact two different artists, working on the same piece of wall, almost 5,000 years apart. This is roughly akin to an artist in the year 6500 coming and putting his/her own slant directly on the Sistine Chapel.
Over this, Herzog philosophises, ponderously. His lines are incredulous, and when he attempts to interview those people lucky enough to have entered the cave previously, his questions are obtuse and often bewildering. The musical score is sometimes jarring, also, and inappropriately matched to what’s on screen. Having said this, it is still an amazing piece of cinema that tells a story that none of us, most likely, will every get to see otherwise.
As a side note, the screening at Hoyts in Melbourne Central, was plagued by technical difficulties. The first ten minutes or so the sound was distorted, such that the narration sounded somewhat like a robot playing a Jew’s Harp. This caused a scene the likes of which I have never witnessed at a MIFF showing, with patrons stamping their feet, booing and yelling to try and get the staff’s attention. It was raucous, and when the film stopped and began again with the sound repaired, it was almost a full ten minutes later. Their woes did not end there, though. As the prologue commenced, and we were learning about albino alligators (things got a bit off-topic), the film suddenly froze, and the screen then went black. It took another five or so minutes for the staff to fix this, but then the film restarted from a point well before the prologue. By this time most people had left, and when the film again froze momentarily, even more departed. I stuck it out until the end, not knowing that all that waiting was really only for an additional 3 minutes or so. It must be frustrating for new Festival director, Michelle Carey, because these sorts of things will inevitably reflect upon her, even though they are so far beyond her control.
- Five stars for the cave, and three and a half for the film.