The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

While I have been looking into other narratives over Christmas, as well as continuing to look into comic based narratives, when I discovered this film.

Directed and narrated by Warner Herzog, this film is a documentary about the Chauvet caves, recently discovered in Southern France. Although the film itself adds a narrative in the discovery of the cave, and how the team was allowed to film there, the real story is in the beautiful cave paintings discovered there. Over 35000 years old, these are some of the earliest paintings ever discovered and have been miraculously preserved due to a cave in soon after they were painted. The cave itself is completely protected from the elements and isolated from any natural impact, keeping the paintings in the most unbelievable condition.

part of the incredible discovery, apart from the incredible detail and skill in the images, is the use of rudimentary communication in what they present. Several images show use of tone and shadow – and a few even show attempts at movement, with several images laid over each other. This truly is the birth of art and the use of images as a form of expression, and at the same time it is the birth of sequential art, showing them to have a similar timeline. Before even language had been developed by humans we were able to communicate via the use of laid out and set images, with motion and depth shown in them.

These images are still understandable, despite some of the animals being extinct for thousands of years. One image shows a herd of cow like animals faced against predators, chasing behind them with the smudges of coal showing the clouds of dust raised by their flight. I recommend this film to anyone interested in any of the comic based forms of narrative, as it shows the actual rules needed, and how little development there has actually been.