This review originally ran on January 21, 2022 during the Sundance Film Festival.
Where to Watch: Fire of Love is now playing at AMC Sunset 5
“This is Katia. This is Maurice… tomorrow will be their last day.” Making its World Premiere in the U.S. Documentary competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Fire of Love, the incredible true story of a couple whose passion for chasing danger eventually caught up with them, but whose legacy made a lasting impact on their tight-knit community.
In an effort to show the world the strength and beauty of the misunderstood natural phenomena of volcanoes, wife and husband Katia and Maurice Krafft routinely put themselves in the path of danger. One day, they inadvertently found themselves caught in the middle of an unexpected volcanic eruption.
Although their love story ended too soon and their contribution to the scientific community feels incomplete, what they did leave behind is hundreds of hours of in-depth and deep archival footage, which director Sara Dosa weaves together fervently to create a sweeping portrait of two people passionately in love with science, nature, and each other.
“Have you ever loved something so much, you would sacrifice your life for it?” We’re left to contemplate this stirring hypothetical question as we’re led through the vividly rich life of French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft. Voiceover narration is provided by filmmaker and performance artist Miranda July, who so sensitively captures the couple’s self-proclaimed “outsider” and “weirdo” personas. From their first meeting in 1966 to the very last image before their untimely death in 1991, the common thread throughout Fire of Love is the Krafft’s commitment to curiosity and exploration, which overrode any sense of fear.
Katia and Maurice documented volcanoes from all over the world, capturing some of the most breathtaking images in the process. Dressed like extras from Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic in light blue onesies and red beanies, Katia and Maurice are as goofy as they are brilliant, and were as close to soul mates as you can get (if you believe in that sort of thing). Their shared passion to educate the world on these natural wonders enabled life-saving research. It would prove to be bittersweet, as that same unwavering passion and fascination with danger ultimately led to their deaths.
In telling the Krafft’s story, director Sara Dosa took inspiration from French new wave films with fun and light-hearted editing techniques (Dosa makes volcanoes and science fun!). Aesthetically, Fire of Love looks like it was pulled from a time capsule from the 70s with its retro fonts and text color, and it totally works.
If Katia and Maurice were alive today, I’d imagine they would be absolutely humbled by the attention this documentary will bring to their life’s work. It encapsulates everything they sacrificed their lives for: an unfiltered look at the unmatched beauty of volcanoes and the mineral world, and how connecting with the earth can help us connect with each other, too.
93 minutes.
