Fire of Love

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.

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.

Like so many others have said; this is a wonderfully put together documentary from fragments of the subjects' own footage. The art work that fills in the visual gaps is creative and timeless, but still felt representative of the time periods we were witnessing. It's amazing how much of their lives they were able to put on film. The soundtrack/score was not distracting, which is a good thing IMO, unless it's distracting for a good reason.

The most unappealing thing about this film has to be the narrator's voice. It is like a horribly, unattractive spoof of Jena Malone's narration in the film "Into the Wild". It felt like it was asking questions when there was no question being asked. The inflections just felt wrong in many parts of the film. That is just one viewer's opinion though.

Anyways, definitely worth a watch, but could have been better.

There are fuses where their length is undefined, ticking time bombs where the clock faces are blind, explosive discharge they pre-empt, as the earth expels ferment, red or grey, depending how the plates combined. These are landscapes where a couple used to graft, where they practiced, learned, and developed their Krafft, among the pyroclastic flows, volcanoes in their death throes, they enjoyed their time together, life was a blast.

A wonderful piece of filmmaking about an eccentric couple who found love among the volatile and explosive environments found in and around the those parts of the world where the planet vents its spleen.

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.