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FIRE OF LOVE – Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Review

FIRE OF LOVE – Review

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Volcanologists and filmmakers Maurice and Katia Krafft studying an erupting volcanoes, in the documentary FIRE OF LOVE. Courtesy of National Geographic Films.

Volcanoes and love often paired in romantic imagery but FIRE OF LOVE documents a real case of volcanic love, that of married volcanologists Katia and Maurice Kraft, who loved volcanoes, and each other, more than anything.

Even if you have never heard their names, you have likely seen their work, as their breath-taking film footage and still photos of volcanoes erupting have been used countless times in films, as well as appearing in their own documentaries. The couple initially shot the footage as a way to capture complex phenomenon for later scientific analysis, but because they got so close and were so skilled as photographers, the images are astounding, even works of art, in their own right.

The Kraffts have been the subjects of other documentaries, including Werner Herzog’s INTO THE INFERNO. Sara Dosa’s documentary has fabulous photography and a moving story about these ground -breaking scientists, who were also surprisingly charismatic, but takes a more reflective, poetic tone, with narration by Miranda July, about their remarkable, startling life together. It is an approach that works well with the Kraffts’ dramatic footage of erupting volcanoes, with Sara Dosa’s finely-honed editing. Dosa came across some of the Kraffts footage while working on another documentary, and was so taken with it, that she tracked down more and had it digitized for this documentary.

The documentary is titled FIRE OF LOVE but could almost also be called “love of fire” as volcanoes was their shared passion. Both were French, with Maurice from the Alsace region. Both Katia and Maurice were obsessed with volcanoes from childhood so when the two met it seemed like fate. They quickly fell in love and married, but decided from the start not to have children, perhaps thinking about the perilous work they planned on doing which risked orphaning any offspring.

Despite their shared love of volcanoes, they differed in their temperaments, their scientific focus and the roles each took differed as they worked side-by-side to study volcanoes. Katia’s degree was in physics and chemistry, while Maurice studied geology, which meant they had complementary scientific skills. They decided early that the best way to study them was by recording visually what was happening, which meant learning film-making techniques in challenging, dangerous situations. Both were bold and fearless in their work but Maurice was the greater risk-taker, while Katia was more cautious and methodical. Yet she had to go where Maurice went, in part to keep an eye on him.

The Kraffts strove to be the first on site of an erupting volcano and usually were, which gained them the respect of fellow volcanologists. To fund their work, the Kraffts produced books and films of the volcanoes, and toured speaking about their work. The couple included themselves in their documentaries, which added a level of human interest that contributed to their films success.

The Kraffts’ research led to a better to understanding of volcanoes and a new way to classifying them. They spent most of their career studying one kind of eruption, the type that erupts with a continuous flow of lava. Yet it is the other kind, the type that erupt suddenly with an explosion of gas and a pyroclastic flow, that is most deadly. In the documentary, the Kraffts refer to these as red and black, with the latter being the more dangerous kind. At one point, the Kraffts felt an need to research this more deadly, unpredictable volcano, and it was while studying one in Japan that they died.

The insightful, moving documentary FIRE OF LOVE is filled with the Kraffts’ fiery and beautiful images, as well as images and a wealth of information on the groundbreaking work and remarkable lives of this scientific couple.

FIRE OF LOVE, partly in French with English subtitles, opens Friday, July 29, in theaters.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars