Fire of Love: A Poetic Chronicle of Two Volcanologists' Romance with Lava and Each Other
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A-minus
Much of what is known about volcanoes is built on the work of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. The couple spent their lives together observing and documenting volcanoes for decades before losing their lives to one in 1991.
In the poetic and playful documentary Fire of Love, director Sara Dosa takes a look at their life together, their passion for volcanoes and their legacy.
Drawing footage largely from their archives, Dosa traces the couple’s story from their late ‘60s meeting in the Alsace region in France, allegedly on a blind date where there was an instant click, to their deaths in 1991 while they were observing a major eruption at Mount Unzen in Japan.
Maurice and Katia Krafft in their happy place.
They had a lot in common. Both had been fascinated with volcanoes since their school year. They both became geo scientists: Maurice was a geologist, and Katia, a geochemist. Neither were interested in living conventional lives, deciding instead to follow their passion and devote themselves to field studies of volcanoes, under rules they created themselves (which generally meant getting as close to possible to active eruptions).
Standing within meters of lava, gas and rocks shooting out at high speed from the mouth of a volcano wasn’t every geologist’s and volcano lover’s idea of a safe way to understand the inner workings of their subject matter. When the Kraffts began their work, the field of volcanology was relatively new, with many questions still unanswered.
Wanting to observe eruptions at as close a range as is humanly possible, the Kraffts gained confidence and comfort with their rocky, fiery subjects. The film shows us the couple camped in the crater of one of their favourite volcanoes, Niyagongo, while it was erupting.
They were researchers, filmmakers, photographers, writers, educators. They put together films and books to fund their travels and to extend their ability to be where they wanted to be on a moment’s notice.
Maurice was the cinematographer (he made a number of movies about volcanoes). Katia, the photographer, put books together. The images they recorded are beautiful: fiery red lava fountains shooting up in the air, flowing rivers of molten lava, lava lakes, giant grey ash clouds spewing to high altitudes during an eruption, or rushing down the volcano at high speeds in a pyroclastic flow.
They were part of a small group of volcano scientists and enthusiasts from around the world, trading knowledge, alerting each other at the signs of a potentially impending eruption, and trying to warn governments to be prepared.
They knew the dangers. Maurice talks about the temperatures of the lava, and how incredibly fast a pyroclastic flow moves through a landscape. They donned silvery fireproof suits, like aliens landing on a burning planet, to get them as close as they could.
Maurice, talked about wanting to ride a canoe on a lava lake, and once, over Katia’s objections, took out a tricked out rubber canoe for a paddle in a volcanic lake with highly acidic water.
They were adventurous and, to some extent risk takers. But they were not careless.
Still, studying volcanoes is a risky game. As knowledgeable as they were about volcanoes and eruptions, they were aware that a volcano’s eruptive behaviour wasn’t always predictable.
That unpredictability is what ultimately killed them. They died, along with 41 others, including journalists and American volcanologist Harry Glicken, on June 3rd, 1991 while observing a major eruption of Japan’s Mt. Unzen. They had moved to what they believed was a safe distance away, to a valley 2 miles from the summit. Call it bad luck.
In an interview the day before, Maurice was both philosophical and a little flippant. “I’m never afraid. Even if I die tomorrow, I don’t care,” he said.
Dosa has taken an interesting approach in telling the Krafft’s story. She restricted herself almost entirely to their footage.
There are no talking heads. Instead of friends, family or colleagues speaking on their behalf, she has actress Miranda July narrating, telling the story, adding in some observations of her own, at times musing about the couple and what their life was like on those rocky slopes.
Dosa has also chosen to keep the tone playful. Maurice and Katia did the thing they loved, making their own rules, seemingly very bonded. There are not a lot of images of them together, but what we see is two people having fun. Playful, sometimes flirtatious, often both together, each of them absorbed in whatever task was in front of them.
Although Fire of Love isn’t about the ins and outs of their marriage or relationship, in this film, they do seem to have found an almost magical connection - to each other, to their work, and to volcanoes which they found endlessly fascinating.
Fire of Love, written and directed by Sara Dosa, starring Katia Krafft, Maurice Krafft, narration by Miranda July.
In theatres July 22, 2022