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.

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).

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.

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.)

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.