"Fire of Love" scorches the eyeballs while extolling mad devotion of volcanic couple

Fire of Love

Documentary directed by Sara Dosa about the love, lives and deaths of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. Narrated by Miranda July. Opens July 22 at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox; now playing in some U.S. theatres (check listings). STC

⭐⭐⭐1/2 (out of 4)

Peter Howell

Movie Critic

Katia and Maurice Krafft, Alsatian French scientists and lovers, were as eccentric as characters in a Wes Anderson movie.

They died in 1991 after getting too close, as usual, to a lava flow from a Japanese volcano, one of many they’d studied over the years. Their deaths were perhaps inevitable — Maurice, a fatalist, spoke of their “kamikaze existence in the beauty of volcanic things” — but their lives were not without purpose.

Their research led to timely warnings about eruptions that helped save thousands of people.

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Sara Dosa’s unique documentary, a jury prize winner at Sundance 2022, refuses to wallow in tragedy.

Instead, it commits to a mad embrace of destiny, with eye-searing archival footage and an appreciation of the ineffability of devotion. 🌓

(This review originally ran in the Toronto Star.)

@peterhowellfilm