Absolutely everyone who is interested in art, culture, and the human condition should see Cave of Forgotten Dreams. It's extraordinary. And then go and read "First Impressions," the 2008 Judith Thurman article in the New Yorker that influenced Werner Herzog to make the film. You can rent Cave of Forgotten Dreams on iTunes and, I assume, on other film rental sites, though if you can see it in 3D in a theater, it's probably well worth the effort. I watched it on my 13-inch computer screen and it was powerful and beautiful and completely intriguing--right down to the Werner Herzog signature strangeness in the postscript.
If you haven't heard of it, the film documents the images in Chauvet Cave in France, made perhaps 30,000 years ago; they are magical and graceful and seem effortless. There's been a lot of talk among archaelogists, cultural anthropologists, and art historians about what this means. Did the skill to make artistic images evolve, or, as these images suggest, simply appear? Thurman draws fascinating connections between images in contemporary shamanic ritual and the images in the cave, especially when humans are in motion before them. You simply can't help but be entranced by the mystical possibilities and the human connection to these most ancient of ancestors.
An image from the walls of Chauvet Cave.
Edited to add: Today, as it happens, is Werner Herzog's birthday, so celebrate his brilliance by watching this film. You can also listen to him read Go the Fuck to Sleep, because it's awesome.
