. . . Werner Herzog's ODE TO THE DAWN OF MAN, dealing with the making of a score for his documentary feature, CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, runs the gamut from a father-baby cello duet to a keyboardist playing a piano and an organ at the same time. Composer/featured instrumentalist Ernst Reijseger's facial contortions as he plays his custom-built five-string cello (which helps him produce tones not unlike those of the musical saw) are accentuated by his Close-Shaven Skull, putting one in mind of how Harry Potter's nemesis--Lord Voldemort--might look if the latter had a nose and cello. This 39-minute short, shot by Herzog in a Baroque-style church, is a patchwork of snippets, including a keyboards-cello duet lasting nearly ten minutes (a repetitive, seemingly improvised piece more along the lines of film composer Phillip Glass than classic jazz). Ernst's wife Djoete is a pianist herself, and their baby daughter Ea is encouraged to finger the respective parental instruments in action (which is not quite as much a case of child abuse as it may sound to those who have not yet watched ODE). Reijseger's pairing with an eight-member local choir are more Discordant than his duets with his daughter or the keyboardist, and the disgruntled-looking flutist generally gets the short end of the stick.
Review of Ode to the Dawn of Man
