Fire of Love

Visually stunning, beautiful, awe-inspiring, poetic, and extraordinary documentary featuring tons of lava and a love story that feels like another eccentric Wes Anderson film. Maurice & Katia Krafft were a unique, passionate, quirky, and inspiring couple that loved getting up & close with volcanos and living life on the edge.

SIFF 2022 Watch #5.

Volcanos are fascinating aren't they. Something about things coming up from the depths of the earth. Katia and Maurice Krafft certainly thought so. They are scientists, the outdoor type out in the field exploring in all weather, thankfully with a crew that have cameras to capture the adventures. This is all archive footage. Some very loose, telling the story of the people and some beautifully shot telling the story of the volcanos they study. It's all pulled together with some narration from Miranda July, who certainly adds a romantic hue, but it doesn't feel contrived. Along with snippets of tactile animation, the score and foley work is lovely... and funny, cue Maurice testing Katia's super sci-fi helmet with a rock. There's a lot to love here. Their personalities. The honesty of the footage and how it's cut and of course, the lava flows and eruptions. "It's so grandiose". It certainly is. It's exciting. Informative. Dangerous. Entertaining and very quotable, "Curiosity is stronger than fear", "The length of the fuse is never known". You get a clear sense that this is the documentary they would've made themselves, if they'd had the chance. They're daredevils, well Maurice certainly is. Thinking nothing of taking a dingy out on a lake of concentrated acid. Katia a little less so, but still, this is a dangerous occupation. There's a purity to Fire of Love. A documentary with no agenda. Magnificent.

Katia, Maurice and the volcano: a fiery menage a trois that will not end well, unless of course, it really is better to burn out than to fade away. For a movie that begins with a startling spoiler (our French lovers succumb to their lust for lava), "Fire of Love" spends the entirety of this documentary giddily championing our infectiously doomed couple as they crisscross the globe in search of volcanic activity.

Not flighty danger seekers, the Kraffts were dedicated volcanologists and filmmakers who faced danger with acceptance but also with a joie de vivre. Among spectacular in situ footage we are also treated to Maurice peppering the talk show circuit, eagerly detailing their latest escapades with boyish exuberance, some humour, and scientific wonder.

This is a man who professed his greatest wish in absolute seriousness was riding a canoe down a river of lava. Instead of shooting down this frivolous dream, Katia notes that it would have to be made of rocketship grade metal. All that is missing is a steady rain of heart emojis throughout the screening. It makes one want to dispatch for the nearest eruption. Almost.

This is where film comes in: we can enjoy an exciting, dangerous dance with death, learn a few things, and cherish the power of unbridled love. A raison d'etre shared, is what makes the world go round, or explode.

A bientot.

HipCRANK.

This film tells the story of two scientists who study volcanoes, which leads to their marriage and shared research. The setup might have been too sentimental for my taste but director Sara Dosa sure knows how to tell a story, bringing together amazing archival footage, the most amazing of which features the couple that undertook this dangerous and wonderful work. This was one of the best films at Sundance in 2022.

As "Fire of Love" (2022 release; 93 min) opens, we are introduced to Maurice and Katia Krafft, vulcanologists from France, and we are reminded that the film's footage comes "from the deep archives of the Kraffts". We go back in time, as the couple meets in the Alsace region of France and develops a mutual interest and passion in exploring active volcanoes. They document their travels in movies and pictures. At that point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is directed by Sara Dosa ("Tricky Dick & The Man In Black"). The movie consists entirely from the hundreds of hours of footage that the Kraffts recorded during their travels all over the world. This results in the movie being shown in the rather unusual 4:3 film ratio, but let's be clear: this does not affect the movie's top quality at all. The footage is nothing short of stunning, as the couple edges ever closer to active volcanoes. They fully realize the potential dangers of doing so, but as Katia comments: "Curiosity is stronger than fear". Elsewhere Maurice comments (I'm paraphrasing): "If I die tomorrow doing this, it's alright." The mixture of watching the forces of active volcanoes and the couple's passion for their work (and each other) makes for a dreamy, poetic, and yes, romantic cocktail of life and love.

"Love of Fire" premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival to immediate critical acclaim. The film is currently rated 99% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason. I am equally 99% certain that this will be nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar. The movie is currently streaming on Hulu, where I caught it the other night. If you are in the mood for an extraordinary nature documentary the likes of which you have never seen before, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

*UPDATE* As I had expected, the movie did get a Best Documentary Oscar nomination, and I'd say it has a decent chance of winning the Oscar, although "Navalny" and "All The Beauty and the Bloosdhed" (both of which outstanding documentaries in their own right) are also right up there. (My personal prediction is that "Navalny" will take the Best Documentary Oscar.)