Fire of Love movie review & film summary (2022)
“I need to get nearer, proper into the stomach of the volcano,” Maurice as soon as mentioned, including, “It can kill me at some point, however that does not trouble me in any respect.”
“It isn’t that I flirt with dying,” Katia mentioned, “however at that second, I do not care in any respect.”
Their union not solely produced a trove of astonishing imagery that may be endlessly reworked and put to a wide range of makes use of, it gave any future filmmaker who needed to retell their story a gallery of metaphors for love, ardour, obsession, and dedication. From the opening pictures of the Kraffts driving a Jeep via snowy tundra and pausing to unstick the car from an ice patch, shot after shot serves its personal narrative perform whereas seeming as if it is also functioning as a metaphor or image (whatever the Kraffts’ authentic intent). Movies which can be made this manner may be endlessly re-watchable, as a result of they do not put too high quality some extent on the varied doable secondary associations, as an alternative giving the viewer psychological house through which to muse and fantasize and draw their very own connections.
Directed and cowritten by Sara Dosa (“The Final Season,” “The Fringe of Democracy”) and narrated by filmmaker-actor-artist Miranda July, “Hearth of Love” is considered one of a vanishingly uncommon breed of documentary that’s decided to be “whole cinema,” not simply capturing the details of what occurred to its topics however creating a complete aesthetic—a vibe—round them. As directed by Dosa and nimbly lower by editors Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput (who’ve already obtained an award for his or her work right here, and deserve extra), “Hearth of Love” isn’t content material to toss a sequence of arresting pictures collected by different filmmakers on the display, despite the fact that the end result nonetheless would’ve been riveting if that they had.
The Kraffts have been as soon as described by a journalist as “touring performer volcanologists,” they usually favored the outline and located fact in it. Dosa’s film leans into the concept, linking them to a protracted custom of naturalist filmmakers that features their countryman Jacques Cousteau. We’re conscious that the Kraffts are utilizing their eccentric charisma and romantic mystique to get themselves (and the viewer) as near the motion as doable. Our consciousness of the mechanics of their “act” is a part of the present we’re watching, just like the patter of a magician who talks concerning the historical past of illusions whereas doing tips.
