Delayed Reaction: Fire of Love

Premise: A love story about two people who chase volcanos.

 

Generally speaking, if I'm watching a documentary and have a moment where I think "There's no way that footage is real", that's a good sign. Watching Fire of Love, I thought that several times. The archival footage of Katia and Maurice Krafft alone is worth watching the movie for. They got closer to volcanos than a human has any right too.

 

Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by a lot of the rest of the movie. Miranda July's narration wore on me. It was too poetic, like the filmmaker was trying to force meaning onto the audience rather than letting me get there myself. The Kraffts died in the 90s chasing volcanos, which the film admits early on. That's a limitation the film struggles to work around. It's cool that the Kraffts had so much footage, but the footage wasn't all that enlightening. I think of something like Grizzly Man as a contrast. That guy couldn't shut up or turn off the camera, so there was a lot of footage to chew on. The Kraffts, at least based on the footage in the film, were more private. Or maybe just boring. There wasn't a lot to learn about them. Their deaths weren't mysterious. So, it felt like a documentary trying to figure something out when there wasn't much to figure out. I assume that the filmmakers heard about this couple and when they found out about how much footage they had over the years, became convinced there was a deeper story. I respect the effort, but I don't think they got there. The volcano footage sure is cool though.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend