Interview with the director of the greatest gripping love story of the year
“They left a huge imprint on the memory of the other people who worked with them, their circle of family and those who knew and enjoyed them,” Sara Dosa, director of Fire of Love, says of Maurice and Katia Krafft. Volcanologists in love feed the most exciting romance of the year in Fire of Love. This masterfully assembled archival odyssey exploits the wonders left by the Kraffts. His imprint is perhaps the most powerful in the sense of wonder through which Dosa navigates in his photographs and research. Fire of Love evokes in a stimulating way the interest that defines Krafft’s likely insatiable thirst for knowledge. This film is aimed at all those who are driven by the wonderful questions of life, but animated by the magnetic charm of romance.
Although the Kraffts died doing what they love at the foot of Mount Unzen in Japan in 1991, Dosa considers them “co-creators. “in the cinema and the truth. After documentaries such as The Last Season (2014) and The Seer and the Unseen (2019), Fire of Love marks its first archival tapestry.
“To embrace this sense of co-creation, we use the characteristics of fact-making cinema, such as deep listening and building trusting relationships with other people in films,” dosa says. “In this case, I was listening to other people like Maurice’s brother. , Bertrand, in France. ” In addition, the film actively “listens” to the abundant paintings the Kraffts left behind to identify relationships with the subjects themselves. “They left a lot of materials,” dosa. metraje observes and the photographs they took, yet they wrote nearly 20 books.
Dosa admits that harnessing the Kraffts’ bravery to venture into the unknown presented a gentle first guide. She says her team was preparing a scout for another assignment in Siberia in April 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic made production impossible. Dosa says she met the Kraffts during their studies for The Seer and the Unseen and discovered inspiration in their archives. “Everyone on my team and of course the country and the world were suffering from so much fear, loss, uncertainty and the unknown,” Dosa observes, drawing inspiration from the Kraffts in the midst of COVID. Meeting those other people who were so adept at navigating uncertainty and who delved into the unknown with interest and boldness, who had not only reconciled the option of death, but also knew what was most meaningful to them, was a gentle guide in such a difficult time. “
A year later, Fire of Love was already in vogue on the festival circuit. Document enthusiasts were given an idea when the paintings in progress won the first Pitch Prize at the Hot Docs Forum. Partnering with makers Shane Boris (The Edge of Democracy) and Ina Fichman (The Gig Is Up), the release of Fire of Love captivated the virtual crowd with their unlikely love story. Dosa says her connection to Montreal-based Fichman grew out of her long collaboration with Boris, who in the past portrayed with Fichman in Elizabeth Lo’s dog documentary Stray, which won best international film at Hot Docs 2020.
“They were completing the cast of Stray when we started the progression of Fire of Love. We needed a manufacturer who had archival experience and who could also speak French, and Shane knew that,” says Dosa. “I knew Ina socially through documentary circles in the United States. She was able to download the archival rights to Maurice and Katia’s photographs through Image’Est in Annecy, France. “
Kraffts files alone come with nearly two hundred hours of 16mm footage. Dosa notes that the guideline for navigating the abundant volume of curtains was based on the duo’s brainwave. “We looked for the film to feel as true to them as possible,” says Dosa. “It was vital to be accurate and factual, but also to speak to the higher fact of their minds. They were such philosophical, playful, funny and sensible people. We look for the film to feel imbued with its way of being in this world.
Although the archival character places the story of the Kraffts as a retrospective, the film gives the impression that it is set on stage with volcanologists acting as active agents of their own history. From the first drop of a needle offered by Katia and Maurice as rock stars shaking a field on stilts, Fire of Love walks to the exclusive rhythm of Krafft. The photographs show volcanologists sticking their noses into the volcanic abyss and reading the aftermath of eruptions to learn the scale and speed of the activity. There is a sense of play in the photographs they took, either of volcanic activity and of themselves navigating the sites. The interest of scientists is palpable when checking the limits of the herbarium. The same goes for their intimate bond, as the gaze of love frames 16mm.
“The first and ultimate guiding precept we had in taking those photos was that we were looking for the film to be a love story,” Dosa says. “It seemed more true to Katia and Maurice’s delight with volcanoes. “filmed a lot in combination in the field, one of them is behind the camera when the other demonstrates the findings. Katia, for example, would possibly be filming as Maurice tiptoes on the precipice of hell. Maurice records it as he watches the lava flow in which he would love to block an aluminum canister.
“There’s a line in an e-book Maurice wrote where he says, ‘For me, Katia and the volcanoes, it’s a love story. ‘It gave us the feeling that it’s not just a story about dating Katia and Maurice, but it’s a love triangle,” Dosa observes. “Katia, Mauritius and the volcanoes form a kind of triad. “By interpreting the text and intuitively observing the compositions and the plot language of the images, the film provides an artistic and original capsule. of the dating of the Krafft.
A sense of infidelity arises when the paintings prevent the Kraffts from venturing into the unknown together. When the devastation of the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz brings Katia to Colombia and the engagements of the paintings leave Mauricio on a press tour, the volcano’s death toll evokes the sting of an abusive mistress as she plunges into the consequences when local politicians have not. Pay attention to the scientists’ evacuation calls. Tormented by loneliness and sharing the excitement of grief with villagers walking through landslides and shelters, Katia passionately immerses herself in studies that will save lives in the long run.
Guided by a preference to show the Kraffts’ unity, Dosa notes that she resorted to communicating exhibits, variety schedules, news segments, and magazines that made them unlikely celebrities. limited,” dosa says, noting that this archive stream produced about 50 hours of additional material. “For example, there’s a fabulous interview with the two from 1985 where they joke back and forth. They’re actually fun. This is one of the only interviews of them in combination where they delve into rather than just communicate about the science of volcanism. This interview was cut off in such a way that Katia would not even finish her sentence and the interview would be interrupted by intense synthesized music from the 80s. I would look at it and say, ‘Oh, what are we doing now?'”
Fire of Love unearths its spark in masterful editing elegance as cutters Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput seamlessly navigate through the confines of archives. Krafft’s sense of romantic wonder. ” In cases like that, we ended up pausing the footage and showing some shots so the audience could see Katia’s expression,” dosa says. . We let ourselves be advised by Katia and Maurice accepting the limits of photographs to concentrate on the story.
Similarly, the Kraffts’ skeletal productions meant that Dosa’s team had to show ingenuity with many sequences filmed without synchronous sound. From volcanic rumblings to footsteps and car noises that fit the brand and style you see on the screen, each and every sound effect in Fire of Love is a meticulously artistic choice. However, the narrative opens archival curtains and explores the cracks in between.
The books bring scientific, romantic and philosophical reflections to the voiceover told with admiration out of the ordinary through Miranda July. As July thinks about love and the herbal world, another voice approaches the tectonic plates: Katia’s. Although Fire of Love lives up to that of the Kraffts. Dosa says that the sexism of the time is evident in the archives where prominent interviewers advertised Maurice as “the wonderful volcanologist” and Katia as “his wife”.
“There was a lot less Katia, especially in the audio, which allowed us to locate tactics to integrate her into the film to get a sense of her personality, her ideas, and her profound contributions to science,” Dosa says. Fortunately, she was the lead writer of many of his books and wrote from a first-person perspective. “Actress Alka Balbir reads Katia’s curious words as her voice becomes the driving force of the film.
“It was critical that the film pointed out the inequity and gained a concept of who she was as a person,” Dosa observes. One of my favorite quotes from the movie is “Curiosity is more powerful than fear. “Especially in those dubious times we’re going through, it has a kind of creed for me.
Also, Maurice and Katia’s contribution to Fire of Love is only clinical or philosophical, it’s cinematic. The documentary illustrates the Kraffts’ cunning ability to convey their discoveries in a cinematic language. This cinematic feat is the key to the accessibility of his research. There is a genuine sense of authorship when Maurice and Katia express the magnitude of a volcano’s power.
One shot, for example, may show Maurice and Katia passing their heads through craters, while another may show Katia scratching her head in amazement or watching in admiration as the steam causes her hat to swell toward the mountainside. In another, the couple va. al sunset with a colleague on donkeys, if only to hint at a trail of footprints he gives when Dosa throws Morricone’s theme from The Good, the Ugly and the Bad on the soundtrack as scientists tame the volcano. They are masters in the art of conveying an impression of scale.
The Fire of Love photographs are impressive, but doubly so that the Kraffts rationed a bulky 16 mm material, a sensitive and flammable celluloid, in explosive mountains surrounded by lava. “I have so much admiration for his skills as filmmakers,” dosa says. I learned from the intelligent appearance of their compositions, the skills they had as storytellers and were so smart to communicate on a large scale. “
However, the guiding precept of the Krafft paintings is, inevitably, love. “They were so delighted with their models,” Dosa observes. They were so in love with volcanoes that they got as close as they could. By doing so, you can feel that love on their stages. Dosa says the 16mm heartbeat ultimately turned out to distinguish Krafft’s films and photographs from his contemporaries. “One of the most important kinds of his paintings is what it means to capture everything you love. through images,” says Dosa. How difficult it can be when your own emotions, while possibly seeming invisible, can be detected. It is something that I will carry with me in every task that advances: the fuel, the power, the strength that this love has. They taught me how vital it is to tell stories where they guide you through that love.
Pat Mullen is the editor of POV Magazine. He holds a master’s degree in film studies from Carleton University, where he focused on adaptation and Canadian film. Pat has also contributed to publications such as The Canadian Encyclopedia, Paste, That Shelf, Sharp and Complex. He is vice president of the Toronto Film Critics Association.
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