Recently, I watched one of the
latest movies of the prominent German director, Werner Herzog, three times almost incessantly. First, I watched the Cave of Forgotten Dreams with English subtitles to understand the narrations and
dialogues of the film accurately and then watched it again to absorb the real
magic and beauty of the paintings of the pristine Cave
of Chauvet in southern France.
It is very exciting
to know there are still some hidden places and mysterious things on the planet
earth, which after thousands of years are wholly intact. Thereby the ghosts of our ancient fathers
can speak to us by the means of excellent art and unbelievable imaginations.
In this film, as is the case with
the other movies of Werner Herzog, director proposes some serious questions
about human nature, his life and death, and encourages the audiences to think
about the fundamental problems of human condition. One of the most striking
questions of this movie, I believe, is whether the human soul really goes
further, makes progress, and becomes more descent and perfect or is it simply
that it goes to another situation without any progression?
The paintings on the walls of Chauvet
Cave are so fresh and innovative that we can barely believe they’ve been created
some 30,000 or 40,000 years ago by the hands of some unknown persons who may be
inappropriately named primitive by many contemporary people. These paintings
are not
as crude as they may seem. But they have, surprisingly, some
characteristics of modern art, namely perspective, and as also mentioned by
Herzog himself, some cinematic elements. So, how could we label such people, be
it primitive or modern? If the main trait of human race is his innovation and
his sensitivity, so those ancient people are not primitive.
One time, three or four years ago,
most of my time was passed on the study of The Bible. On that occasion, I was
always impressed by the idea that maybe the ancient writers of the scriptures were
more like modern writers than it may appear at the first sight. After that occasion,
I am convinced that modern writings have rather more resemblance to that of the
ancient past than we may think or would like them to. After watching Herzog’s Cave
of the Forgotten Dreams, once again this is the question: “are we really different from ancient people in such matters as soul,
sensitivity and innovation? And should we accept that human honors and dishonors
are as the same as his old relatives?” These are parts of those questions that
Herzog have asked us frequently. In the “Aguirre, the Wrath of God”, Herzog stunningly
displays the dark side of human nature. In the Cave of Forgotten Dreams he mainly
represents the beautiful and glowing aspects of human soul. In both cases,
Herzog tries to acquaint the audience with the unknown.
Just as the Cave of the Forgotten
Dreams shows us, there are always secret things to see, sometimes beautiful,
sometimes ugly! And there are still some place for the mysteries in this world,
sometimes hidden caves, and sometimes great movies and old books, all of them
as a road to the unknown.
*
Thank you Hadi, and Happy New Year!
January 1, 2014
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