Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: What a gift Werner Herzog offers with "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," an inside look at the astonishing Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc - and in 3-D too. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Too often, you feel the weight of a serious subject slackening the normally adroit Herzog. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Cave of Forgotten Dreams is sometimes frozen by Herzog's awe. But it's hard not to love him for always trying to look beyond the surface of things, to find a common chord in the landscape of dreams. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The unknowable or the mysteriously ambiguous in human behavior is what sets Mr. Herzog's synapses to firing with singular intensity. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: What we get from this film: a specific and personal sense that 32,000-year-old artists, with all their ideas and passions, were not, fundamentally, that different from us. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Has much to recommend it: Herzog's half off-the-wall/half-profound queries, a delightfully unexpected coda on albino alligators, a single scene on ancient weapons that alone justifies the 3-D process, and the opportunity to see what so few have seen. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: What we come to love about Herzog's documentary is Herzog's love itself. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This is one of the few films to use the [3D] format for intellectual, even philosophical ends: the added depth parallels the deeper understanding of humanity that the paintings inspire. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: See this film. It takes you to a place you won't soon forget. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Herzog is reaching for ways to comprehend what he imagines to be the emblems of the birth of the modern soul. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: This truly intimate film invites viewers to commune as well and feel a profound living connection with fellow humans of 30,000 years ago. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: It is our tour guide that makes Cave of Forgotten Dreams an often thrilling experience. Read more

Hollywood Reporter: One of the best uses ever of 3D. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The director is excellent at contextualizing these venerable wall paintings, at discussing them with a variety of scientists in a way that allows us to think about them with a perspective we otherwise might not have. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Werner Herzog has such obvious enthusiasm for the discoveries he depicts in Cave of Forgotten Dreams, it's as if you're listening to a giddy little kid who learned the coolest thing at school today and can't wait to tell you all about it. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Herzog's voiceover is, as always, more entertaining than most film soundtracks. The film has a touch of that gray fuzz which still afflicts 3-D, but the Chauvet cave is a perfect candidate for such technology, because it stashes its secrets in a recess. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: The result is a journey to prehistory that's simultaneously wondrous and tedious, profound and completely nuts -- which is to say, quintessential Herzog. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Director Werner Herzog's latest cinematic mind trip blows you away with its beauty, though not necessarily due to its exquisite use of 3-D. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Working with extremely limited lighting, Herzog not only gives a sense of the caves as a sinuous, tactile environment, but focuses on the movement suggested by the paintings. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: We're never going to be allowed in this place, so thanks, Werner, for inviting us along. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: To the degree that it's possible for us to walk behind Herzog into that cave, we do so. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The art is beautiful, even stunningly accomplished, and these images are breathtaking -- unlike anything you've seen before or will see again. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Art history lessons don't get much better: "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" presents the world's oldest paintings captured by one of film's great visionaries. Read more

Daniel Engber, Slate: Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a Herzogian masterpiece -- a ponderous and nauseating theme-park ride, but one that unfolds as a probing essay on the history of art. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: If you're interested in the history of the human race -- if you're a member of the human race -- you owe it to yourself to see this movie. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It was the birth of the modern human soul, and cinematic explorer Werner Herzog's fantastic "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" is the delivery-room video. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This is something more than a movie; it's a testament - and re-creation - of rapture. Read more

Guy Dixon, Globe and Mail: A historic, invaluable film. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: Herzog notes, 'Time and space lose their meaning.' Inevitably bound by both, his film is as close to their beauty as we will ever get. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The overall effect, aided by Ernst Reijseger's score of rising choral harmonies and lush strings, is rapturous. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Filtering the world's oldest paintings through the latest in cinematic technology, Werner Herzog delivers a one-of-a-kind art-history lesson. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: One of the few justifiable recent excursions into 3-D. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: To call "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" a great movie isn't just an understatement, it's a wildly inaccurate way to describe an experience that, in its immersive sensory pleasures and climactic journey of discovery, more closely resembles an ecstatic trance. Read more