Priceless cave-art at Chauvet

WERNER Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams celebrates a series of wildlife paintings.

Thirty thousand years old, they are the world’s first field-guide. A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words; those which Palaeolithic artists have left us are priceless. They show us creatures gone for ever and tell us things about them we would never otherwise have known.

Herzog is famous for films such as Fitzcarraldo and The Enigma of Caspar Hauser. If, however, you happen to be a philistine who regards most ‘art-house’ offerings as pretentious twaddle, don’t be discouraged. Herzog is a superb documentary maker and this film is uncomplicated and straightforward. It’s also unusual in being shot in 3-D.