Review: Fire Of Love

Image courtesy of Neon.

A mesmerizing blend of photography and archival footage, Sara Dosa's stunning documentary "Fire of Love" feels like a Werner Herzog documentary in terms of subject matter, but with an added dose of romanticism and a dreamy soundtrack that includes music by Air and Brian Eno.

The film tells the story of the late Katia and Maurice Krafft, two French volcanologists who fell in love in the late 1960s, married and spent the rest of their lives exploring and photographing active volcanos around the world until 1991 when a pyroclastic flow on Mt. Unzen in Japan took their lives as well as those of a group of scientists, journalists and firefighters.

The picture reminded me a bit of Herzog's masterful "Grizzly Man," another film about a person whose fascination with nature - in that case, bears - caused the documentary's subject to take greater and greater risks in studying his area of interest until one of them proved to be fatal. Similarly, the Kraffts seemed to not feel as if they were alive unless they were perched on the mouth of a volcano with lava spewing into the air just feet from where they were standing.

If for no other reason, "Fire of Love" is highly recommended for the absolutely stunning footage captured by the couple. At any given time, they are filming exploding volcanos just feet from where they are standing, although Katia explains that "red volcanos" tend to be the safer ones, while the grey volcanos - which can be misleading in terms of how dangerous they are - are the ones that pose the gravest threat.

Interspersed with the Kraffts' stunning footage - which was, in a sense, their livelihood since they would utilize it to make films, write books and go on lecture tours - is some equally fascinating archival footage of the various lands to which they traveled throughout the 1970s and 1980s as well as their personal backstory.

One of the interesting elements of the documentary is that it doesn't treat the Kraffts' demise as a tragedy. On more than one occasion, they note that they recognize the danger of what they're doing, but wouldn't have it any other way. Maurice notes that he wants "to get right into the belly of the volcano. It will kill me one day, but that doesn't bother me at all." Katia says, "It's not that I flirt with death," but adds that when she is in the moment on the cusp of the volcano's mouth, "I don't care at all."

On the one hand, there are themes to be drawn from the film - the Kraffts note how they increasingly became detached from the disappointments of society and only felt alive while in natural settings - and there are elements that reminded me of Herzog's man vs. nature documentaries. But on the other, "Fire of Love" is seemingly content with being an astounding exercise in pure cinema - in other words, the incredible visuals, editing, sound and soundtrack create an aura in which the audience is meant to get lost.

And it works. This is one of the better documentaries I've seen in recent memory. Its subject matter is fascinating, its subjects are interesting and flawed in very human ways, the footage is stunning and there's a sense of being allowed to see something you're not supposed to see - watching humans as tiny specks against massive flames and rivers of lava is breathtaking and frightening. For those interested in documentary filmmaking, this one is a must-see.