There’s no better way to describe the union of Maurice and Katia Krafft than as a Fire of Love, which is also the title of the new documentary film about the volcanologist couple. An opening night feature of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, Sara Dosa’s new film is presented in the cinéma-vérité style, exclusively using archival footage and video made by the couple and their associates. In lieu of talking heads, viewers are treated to the couple’s own words, both through audio recordings and reenacted dialogue from their writings.
(Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
Narrated by Miranda July, Fire of Love introduces viewers to a couple whose discontentment with humanity led to fascinations with earth science and volcanoes in particular. The film is narrowly focused on their loves; each other and volcanoes, with the only information about their upbringing coming from their first visits to volcanoes. Otherwise, the timeline is their first meeting in 1966, with two different versions of the story, up to their death in 1991. It’s not a spoiler in that narration, with the film announcing upfront that they died and did so doing what they love. When it comes, it doesn’t play like a sad affair, but rather the culmination of a life’s work; two captains going down with the ship they built together who wouldn’t have had it any other way.
On a technical level, the footage used feels gently restored, eliminating pops and unintended artifacts, but keeping the grain. The sound design separates (or recreates) audio effects to create a surround sound mix out of what was likely a mono source, bringing it into the future while keeping it visually in the past. In a handful of cases, hand-drawn animation is used to demonstrate narrated concepts that had no corresponding archival footage.
Fire of Love is a little too slow-paced for the amount of story it has to cover, particularly in the front half of the film where it recounts some of the couple’s first expeditions. It serves to establish their unique personalities, but you get that organically throughout the film, so it’s a weighty amount of exposition. In contrast, Maurice and Katia’s more perilous explorations towards the ends of their lives feel rushed, including their final resting place at the base of Mount Unzen in Japan. The electronic score also feels out of place at times, especially on a soundtrack that includes period and classical pieces.
In the end, it’s the story that counts and Fire of Love tells a solid one. As the title suggests, it’s a love story, but an unconventional one at that. It’s really a ménage à trois; Maurice, Katia, and volcanoes.
I give Fire of Love 3.5 out of 5 stars.