Fire of Love (2022)
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Fire of Love Movie Review
Fire of Love is a 2022 documentary film directed by Sara Dosa. It is a very interesting documentary about a fascinating subject, but one that could have been even better.
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“If I could eat rocks, I’d stay in the volcanoes and never come down“
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Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft die in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together, unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing some of nature’s most explosive imagery. These two were among the most important and most famous volcanologists and their work produced so much new information about the volcanoes and in particular incredible footage that is mind-blowing to witness to this day.
Some of the best parts about this movie are those exact shots of the volcanoes – the fumes and the burning imagery of charcoal, fiery red and even some gorgeous caves. In those moments, the doc reached a poetic quality that made it very artistic. The fact that this was filmed by these two scientists back in the nineties and before was truly unbelievable as it still looks staggeringly beautiful to this day.
That is because so few have closed in on volcanoes in such an extreme fashion as the Kraffts did. The film consists entirely of archival footage and no modern day interviews to speak of, which was an odd choice that worked to a degree. On the one hand, it was bothersome that we did not get a contemporary perspective from people or scientists who knew or studied them, but on the other hand, this approach aptly led to the movie feeling like an idiosyncratic historical artifact in and of itself.
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My main issue with Fire of Love has to be its lack of psychological insight, which was especially problematic for a movie such as this one. Katia and Maurice were clearly these fascinating figures who were not afraid of dying and were pretty much ready to die in one of those volcanoes, but the filmmakers never delved deeply enough into their psyche, which was disappointing. We get to witness their amusing dynamic and how well connected and aware they were of the media and their roles in it, but exploring how and why they felt the need to do this extremely dangerous job would have been more than welcome.
Fire of Love is an intriguing documentary about this volcanologist couple who would go closer to the most dangerous volcanoes than anybody else. The movie is at its best and most poetic in those shots of the volcanoes themselves as they are just as mind-blowing now as they were then. The film was composed solely of archival footage, which mostly worked, but the lack of psychological insight was particularly bothersome in a story that pretty much begged for that exploration.
My Rating – 4
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