Window Upon Window
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
directed by Werner Herzog
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at ArcLight Hollywood
Herzog's great charm is that he is always interested in people. Whatever doubts he might hold for the fate of mankind, his documentaries inevitably track back to faces and asides and stories. His reputation is such that it's easy to imagine him retreating into documentaries about nature - strip mining, pollution, the mess we make of things - but interviews with CEOs and Snidely Whiplash titans of industry seem anathema to him. There is already enough cheapness; better to illuminate the bright corners.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams concludes on a jarring note, but it is, as Herzog states, a postscript. He guards against complacency but pursues the opinions of thoughtful professionals and men and women with senses of humor. Herzog has a sense of humor, easy to write off as wry European cynicism, but only if you yourself are more cynical than he is. I often approach his movies thinking that I will need to keep up with him, but there is nothing oblique or vague in the love he has for the world.
He is not a sentimentalist, but an open and honest man. The Chauvet caves are an experience to share, not a secret to be passed among an exclusive few. As in all of his movies, one is very much aware of the passage of time, of age especially and the brevity of a life. The caves are a marvel, of course, but the footprints of the boy are just as interesting, as ethereal, and as sad.
directed by Werner Herzog
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at ArcLight Hollywood
Herzog's great charm is that he is always interested in people. Whatever doubts he might hold for the fate of mankind, his documentaries inevitably track back to faces and asides and stories. His reputation is such that it's easy to imagine him retreating into documentaries about nature - strip mining, pollution, the mess we make of things - but interviews with CEOs and Snidely Whiplash titans of industry seem anathema to him. There is already enough cheapness; better to illuminate the bright corners.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams concludes on a jarring note, but it is, as Herzog states, a postscript. He guards against complacency but pursues the opinions of thoughtful professionals and men and women with senses of humor. Herzog has a sense of humor, easy to write off as wry European cynicism, but only if you yourself are more cynical than he is. I often approach his movies thinking that I will need to keep up with him, but there is nothing oblique or vague in the love he has for the world.
He is not a sentimentalist, but an open and honest man. The Chauvet caves are an experience to share, not a secret to be passed among an exclusive few. As in all of his movies, one is very much aware of the passage of time, of age especially and the brevity of a life. The caves are a marvel, of course, but the footprints of the boy are just as interesting, as ethereal, and as sad.
posted by NPK at 9:14 PM
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