The notorious German director takes a cue from James Cameron in shooting the 30,000-year-old cave art of Chauvet, France
Werner Herzog is famous for turning movies into expeditions—he dragged a steamship over a mountain in the Amazon jungle to make Fitzcarraldo and traced the fatal Alaskan footsteps of of bear-lover Timothy Treadwell in Grizzly Man. Now Herzog has persuaded French authorities to allow him to film cave art that has previously been off limits to filmmakers. And he’s doing it in 3-D. This report includes video of the director discussing his project. And Herzog’s wild descriptions of his art, whether in voice-over narration or interviews—have become as compelling as the art itself. With his hyperbolic accent, this guy can make anything sound monstrous and scary, even the “concavities” and “bulges” and “niches” of a dusty old cave.