Few filmmakers have been as ridiculously productive as Werner Herzog. The director already has 59 titles to his name and while his latest work Caves Of Forgotten Dreams premieres at this year’s TIFF, the director laughs about the fact that, “I had my previous opening night for another film only 10 days ago.”
The new movie is a bit of a novelty for the Herzog as it’s his first in 3-D. Herzog felt it was a necessary stylistic decision for his documentary about the extraordinary ancient cave paintings of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc, which were designed to interact with the physical shape of the caves themselves.
The film allowed the director to explore a fascination he’s had with cave paintings since childhood. “It was my first independent intellectual quest,” claimed Herzog. “There was a book of cave paintings that intrigued me which was inaccessible because I couldn’t buy it.
“I only saw it in the display window of a bookstore and it took me half a year to earn the money. I was desperately working as a ballboy in tennis courts and things like this. I hoped that nobody would buy the book because I thought at that time when I was 12 that it would disappear when somebody bought it.
“It didn’t occur to me that a book had many copies.”
The visually arresting film took a great deal of political wrangling and exhausting physical effort to achieve and while the results are finally being enjoyed by audiences,
Herzog has already turned his attention to three other films he’s currently working on simultaneously.
“It keeps on flowing and the moment I finish one film there are six or seven others out there. I’ve never managed to keep at rest,” admitted the director.
“There is a whole culture of complaints when you speak to filmmakers. They’re always complaining about how difficult it is, but I’m just rolling up my sleeves and digging into it.”
