Los relieves del tiempo. La cueva de los sueños olvidados (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Werner Herzog, 2010)

Abstract

This article focuses on Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), one of the last documentary features by Werner Herzog. In this movie the German filmmaker travels to Southern France with an order from French Culture Ministry: to film the cave paintings in Chauvet. Starting with the contrast between the stylized travellings and the brusqueness of some documentary images, the text explores how in this film hallucinatory shots, which are a Herzog trademark, are produced thanks to technology. The main resource used is the 3-D; its main purpose is not to increase the depth of field, but to restore the cave’s relief and make it sensible in the screen. Finally, the article leads with the historical implications of this images and the movie itself: just as the paintings from different times are superimposed on the rock, when they are filmed in 3-D a new historical stratus is created.