Fire of Love | Reelviews Movie Reviews (original) (raw)

Fire of Love (Canada/United States, 2022)

August 14, 2024

Fire of Love was one of two documentaries released in 2022 about the (R.I.P.) late volcanologist couple, Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died in 1991 while pursuing their passion. The other, by the legendary German filmmaker, Werner Herzog, bears the title of The Fire Within. On the surface, it’s easy to confuse Sara Dosa’s non-fictional film with Herzog’s and both feature gobs of amazing footage shot by the Kraffts, who were filmmakers in their own right (although their subjects were primarily lava and ash). But, anyone watching the two movies will immediately recognize the superiority of The Fire Within. About the only reason to see Fire of Love is to be treated to more material from the Kraffts’ archives, since Dosa and Herzog mostly selected different footage.

Herzog documentaries are almost always a treat and, although_The Fire Within_ doesn’t quite reach the level of Grizzly Man, it’s close. Fire of Love, however, feels like a fairly traditional non-fiction chronology, complete with unnecessarily cute animated sequences and an obnoxious narration delivered by Miranda July. July’s unhelpful commentary, which runs the gamut from extraneous to redundant, tempted me to turn off the volume. The movie also tries to posit the Kraffts’ tale as a “love story” and, although the two were likely as passionate about one another as they were about volcanos, that aspect of their relationship doesn’t really come across. The footage isn’t there because it doesn’t exist (something acknowledged by the narration). As a result, the movie feels strangely unfocused. I recall reading a contemporaneous review which argued Fire of Love “lacks insight,” and I think that comment nails the central problem with the production. It never delves beneath the surface. It’s straightforward and strangely unsatisfying as a result. The images captured by the Kraffts are on a significantly higher level than the rest of the material.

Fire of Love tracks the partnership from its beginning in 1966, when the couple met while at college, to its terminus in 1991 when they perished in a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen in Nagasaki. Although most of the imagery throughout Fire of Love is from the Kraffts’ cameras, Dosa supplements their work with that of other filmmakers; this is most notably the case with the Unzen eruption since any footage the Kraffts may have captured was destroyed with them. (That portentous segment of the movie, presented through the lenses of others, represents a high point in the narrative.)

Fire of Love feels like a “greatest hits” album, tracking some of the most important volcanos that the couple visited/investigated during the quarter century of their partnership. In a way this is counterproductive in that it attempts to apply structure to a project that might have worked better with a free-form methodology – a stronger focus on how the multitude of images expresses the force of nature embodied by volcanoes. One of the great strengths of the Kraffts as filmmakers was their ability to capture this. Fire of Love effectively represents this at times but feels constrained by the traditional documentary elements. It is worth seeing primarily if The Fire Within is unavailable and/or as a lesser companion piece to Herzog’s masterful approach to the same basic story.

Fire of Love (Canada/United States, 2022)

Run Time: 1:38
U.S. Home Release Date: 2024-08-14
MPAA Rating: "PG"
Genre: Documentary
Subtitles: none
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1