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.

Gorgeous volcano footage captured by the subjects of the documentary. But I could really do without the breathy, disinterested female narrator, acting like all life is a passing dream. You don't learn very much about Maurice and Katia's work except that they sure did love volcanos!

I ended up having similar feelings with this documentary as I did with "The Biggest Little Farm": A film made for California hippies who want to gaze wondrously at nature without actually learning anything.

I think that I would be more inclined to seek out the films which Maurice and Katia created themselves, rather than watching this one again. But this is a decent, pretty-looking time killer.

Fire of Love is about two people who are married and also happen to be volcanologists, and the life they spent together, filming and photographing volcanoes and all the crazy natural phenomena that comes with them. The film is assembled from the apparently 100s of hours of footage they took, with a few creative liberties taken here and there to fill in some narrative gaps of things they didn't film.

It's a simple, touching story that gets very emotional at times. It's also beautiful to look at, with some amazing footage captured by the film's two subjects. Given most of the footage is from the 1970s and 80s, I'm guessing a lot of it's been restored; at least the shots they could. And then even the lower-quality images or damaged pieces of film still provide breathtaking sights. You understand the awe and wonder these two people felt around volcanoes, and similarly, you truly feel how destructive they are. It's also uses music well (including tracks from Brian Eno and Ennio Morricone!)

Its simplicity does lead to some scenes feeling repetitive. I'm thankful it was only 97 minutes, because that would have been a bigger problem had it been longer. Also, while some of the editing and scene transitions are great, a few don't flow well. And also, there's a surprising number or volcano eruption jump scares, which I didn't love, but maybe I only jumped a bit because I was sitting near the front of the cinema.

Overall, really good, borderline great documentary. Awards shows seem to nominate documentaries randomly, but if they take things seriously this year, Fire of Love should get some nomination love. I doubt there'll be five other 2022 documentaries that are clearly better (okay, the new David Bowie one, Moonage Daydream, might be. Also excited to see that).