He ran away from the circus to become a scientist. One of the charming experts featured in The Cave of Forgotten Dreams was so moved by the experience of visiting the Chauvet Cave that it changed his life (he still LOOKED like a juggler though).
This film may not have outright changed my life but it did fill me with awe and inspire me to experiment with 3D cinematography - do the people have to look so flat? It also made me wonder about the ethics of inflicting confusing accents on audiences for extended periods of time. Not even so much accents as voices - the filmmaker, Warner Herzog has a distinctive slow, 'storyteller' style of narration. (Here I was thinking 'Plastic Bag' had had an affected voice for humour's sake).
For me, the experience of watching this film was like a fairytale education - relaxing in the darkness and getting absorbed in the magic of this underground world. For my boyfriend, it was a long drawn out struggle to stay awake - a real test of love! "But I enjoyed the first 45minutes" he assured me. Didn't he marvel at the last part where finally the narrator just left us to the cave to enjoy without his sleepy commentary? "Well, yeah but I was already tired by then - why couldn't they have had that quiet beautiful part at the beginning and THEN explained all about it?". The man at the theatre had wished us good luck because, personally, he hated it. "I was bagging it just now actually. The narration - how wanky!" Got to love his honesty. "But you know, you might love it if you're an anthropologist, or an archeologist or something - are you an archeologist?" I'm not but really, you don't have to be, it probably wouldn't be academically in depth enough for archeologists. I'm sure they, and most people watching this film, would love it though. If you're a movie 'buff' like our man at the cinema, you might not like it stylistically as a film, but you will be amazed by the beauty. Sparkling stalactites and stalagmites, formations I'd never seen hanging like curtains from the cave roof, the way the shapes and depth of the cave is rendered in 3D, and most of all, the grace and energy of the cave art and the powerful way the lighting was used to reveal it.
My boyfriend didn't feel he'd learnt that much but then he knew a bit about the caves already. I, on the other hand, was amazed even to discover there had once been rhinoceroses in Europe! I was also fascinated (and admittedly a bit disappointed) by the fact that there were so few signs of human life aside from the rock art. And was I the only one who couldn't see the depiction of the lower half of a woman? Perhaps none of the audience saw it - after all, my boyfriend was likely half asleep at that point and the only other people in the audience were two old and grey couples and perhaps the 3D glasses didn't sit well over their ordinary ones. Maybe I was the only one awake in the darkness, the tiny audience was as silent as the grave. I did like the end where I felt alone in the wonder of the cave, exploring by torchlight.
The part right at the end though, well! I think I'll leave you to make up your own mind what that wee director's add on was for? How shall we tie up this cave art documentary? How about dreaming doppelganger nuclear-albino crocodiles? Did the circus guy have a hand in this or is this just Herzog trying to mess with people who go stoned to 3D movies?