The subject of Sarah Dosa’s new documentary “Love of Fire” is Maurice and Katia Craft, who married a French scientist who devoted her life to the study of volcanoes. However, in reality, it may be more accurate to describe the couple who died in a volcanic eruption in 1991 as co-directors. Because they shot the most fascinating images of this curious and memorable movie.
These images are stationary and moving, recording before, during, and after volcanic eruptions on several continents. Some of these are horrifying, as melted rocks fire into the sky and clouds of ash roll down the sides of the mountain. Others are eerie, capturing the brilliance of lively craters and the contours of the newly formed rocks of another world. The presence of these photos is amazing considering how close the person with the camera was to lava and smoke.
Raised in Alsace, France, the crafts they met at the University of Strasbourg devoted themselves to each other, Etna, Strasbourg, Nyiragongo And other volatile spots. As the film speaks for itself, and as the archive interviews and broadcast appearances confirm, their common interest was not just a professional issue. It consumed everything and was ultimately a deadly passion.
Maurice is a geologist and Katya is a geologist, and the differences between these disciplines are sometimes a source of nerdy humor. Geologists are those who row inflatable canoes into lakes of sulfuric acid, and geologists are good at staying on the shore to make measurements and collect samples.
The narration read by Miranda Julai emphasizes the contrast of temperament among scientists that appears to be seen in the photographs. The bird-like and ironic Katya tracked the data and took a still image. Meanwhile, Maurice, who resembles a lion cub with a round head, gave a public lecture and used a movie camera.
In the open, wear a matching red wool cap and silver-insulated jumpsuit, and sometimes a metal helmet that stretches over your shoulder to protect you from melted debris, by toeing lava flows and squeezing ash and mud. I wore it. Fire of Love, which also includes an animated sequence, has some of the deliberate charm of children’s books. Even Maurice’s philosophical rhetoric flight — he and Katya were, after all, French intellectuals — has a naive charm and expresses the mysterious sensations of an inexhaustible starry sky.
The object of its charm is fatally destructive, horribly unpredictable, but for Kraft, danger was part of its charm. “Fire of Love” is a romance that casts a shadow over tragedy. The fact of the couple’s death was established early on, and by the time the details are filled in at the end of the movie, you know more or less what’s coming. What may seem reckless is part of a moral and even spiritual dimension of dedication.
There is a reason why volcanoes have been worshiped and placed like gods throughout human history. Maurice and Katia Craft represent the secular and scientific changes of the old religion. They were anxious for sublimity, but they also wanted to help. The “Fire of Love” distinguishes between relatively predictable “red” volcanoes and, as Maurice says, the more deadly “gray” volcanoes, or “killing volcanoes”.
In their last year, Kraft spent most of their time studying the murderers, hoping to discover patterns that would allow those who live on the path of destruction to escape. They endangered their lives to do this, and the movie claims that their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. More than that, it saves their work and their unique and unforgettable human presence.
Fire of love
Rated PG. Geological violence. Execution time: 1 hour 33 minutes. At the theater.
