Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Wendy Ide

Fire of Love review – a true tale of volcanic passions

Katia and Maurice Krafft gaze upon a volcano in the distance
Katia and Maurice Krafft gaze upon a volcano in the distance Photograph: Image'Est

Twisting cables of molten rock; billowing, doughy crusts; gaping mouths revealing churning guts of lava in an orange so vivid you can practically hear it. The remarkable footage accumulated by the French celebrity volcanologist couple Katia and Maurice Krafft captures the multiple, unpredictable personalities of the volcanoes they studied. But the way this lyrical documentary, operating in the intersection between science and poetry, tells it, the danger of the eruptions was part of the attraction. The closer Katia and Maurice got to the boiling earth, the more their curiosity grew stronger than their fear.

The film, as the over-ornate narration by Miranda July stresses, is a love story. But the romance goes three ways: between the gamine geochemist Katia, the ursine, showboating geologist Maurice and the volcanoes that united them. The film’s approach skirts around the actual science of the Kraffts’ work, but it does explore the psychology of a shared passion, of a couple who melted their boots together on smoking lava flows and danced by the craters in a confetti of volcanic bombs.

Watch a trailer for Fire of Love.
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.