It’s Tuesday, February 14th, Valentine’s Day. The Alice Tully Hall hums with giddiness. Suddenly, the screen is molten red and a thunderous crack rings from the speakers. Yet I could only think of one thing: what will be the stories told of us when we pass? Directed by Sara Dosa, Fire of Love tells the unique love story of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Kraft. It’s documentary, romcom, and tragedy wrapped up in the most breathtaking footage of volcanic activity.
Editors and writers Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput highlighted, in a Q&A after the screening, the tremendous undertaking of sorting through so much archival footage. Of just Katie and Maurice’s personal archive, 200 hours of footage were left out. Another challenge faced was how to tell a love story when one person was often behind the camera. Casper and Chaput extracted meaning from the camera’s focus, from every pan over to zoom in. They also cheekily used footage of molten spewing volcanoes to illustrate the couple’s explosive connection. The narration, the pair explained, was a form of overcoming another challenge: most of the archival footage had no sound. They wanted the narrator to have a “deadpan curiosity” rather than an authoritative tone. The unembodied inquisitive voice guides us through the archival footage with a poetic flare.
Fire of Love is an exercise in recreating story through remnants of the past. It lets viewers wonder about their legacy, and then realize none of that matters in the face of something so massive as St. Helen. Valentine’s Day is over, but Fire of Love still burns. Revel in the drama, chaos, and beauty of volcanoes. Laugh at the absurd number of volcano puns. Let Katia and Maurice show you the love they felt for each other, and for this planet.
