A version of this interview with “Fire of Love” director Sara Dosa first appeared in the Guild & Critics Awards/Documentaries issue of awards magazine TheWrap.
French couple Katia and Maurice Krafft were famous volcanologists until their deaths after an eruption in Japan in 1991. Sara Dosa’s dazzling documentary “Fire of Love” celebrates the Kraffts with a portrait of lives led with risk and adventure on the brink .
The film, which was released by NatGeo and Neon last summer and is available to stream on Disney+, is a triumph of storytelling, sentiment, and design. Peabody winner and Emmy nominee Dosa spoke to TheWrap about blending romance and tragedy, discussing “deadpan curiosity” with narrator Miranda July and stumbling over volcano puns.
Do you remember your first reaction when you heard the story of Katia and Maurice Krafft?
Absolutely. I remember that for me and for the team, we were captivated by them. His story is unlike anything we have ever known. They felt legendary and incredibly vivid. Which is such a unique combination, to feel so mythical and so real. And then the more we learned and the more images we saw, we were blown away, pardon the pun. I accidentally stumble across volcano puns all the time.
The film reveals his fate from the very beginning. Was it something you deliberated about?
It comes at the one minute and six second mark in the film when we say, “This will be the last day for Katia and Maurice,” and that was very deliberate. We wanted the audience to know that they are seeing the images, the photos and the words that the Kraffts left behind. And we didn’t want their deaths to feel sensationalized, so saying it more matter-of-factly felt respectful. It focused on how they lived rather than how they died. And sharing the news of their deaths also ticked a clock within the movie.
Time is a beautiful subject just below the surface of the film.
Yes, the idea of time was very important to us. You have the biological clock and the fragility of human life, embodied by Katia and Maurice, set against this almost immortal geological time of volcanoes. We liked how that theme of time communicated a melancholic and gloomy tone in the film while also really celebrating what it means to live life.
We see a lot of the amazing 16mm footage of the Kraffts. Were you also paying homage to the power of celluloid?
Oh, it was amazing to celebrate the filmic quality of his work. First, it’s wonderful what they filmed: the richness, the little grains of dust, the hairs that got caught in the negative. It puts you in a time and place unlike anything else. But also, on a deeper level, just the fact that they were working with film meant that they had to ration what they committed to posterity. They wanted to capture everything, but they knew their supply was finite. That really reflects his philosophy towards life as well. They knew that any moment could be the last. So they tried to live as deeply and meaningfully and as close to the volcano as possible.
Writer and filmmaker Miranda July narrates the film. How was working with her?
It was so exciting. We had a term we called “curious deadpan,” which is a big part of Miranda’s appeal as an artist. And that also came from French New Wave storytellers, specifically in Jean-Luc Godard’s films, where the tone of the storyteller is sober and neutral but still playful. We knew Miranda would take that approach and she delivered beautifully. She would tell him, “Read this line like you have a secret.” And that resonated with the great mystery of the movie about volcanoes and the human heart.
We hear some music from Brian Eno and from Air in the movie. In fact, Nicolas Godin from Air is the composer of the film. What was your approach to the soundtrack?
There was a general goal to be playful and romantic. When you’re making a movie about love, music is a powerful, magical force. Music can instantly transform you. We knew we wanted something sweeping and epic, but aesthetically we would use the term retro-futuristic. Like dreaming of the future but with an ancient past. Especially since Katia and Maurice were styled like characters from a B-movie sci-fi movie, with their silver suits and helmets.
Air was part of our temporary music, so it was an amazing experience when Niko Godin came in as a composer. And Niko understands very well the power of music. It was interesting, we were using Brian Eno’s song “The Big Ship” as temporary music while editing a scene. It was the climactic moment where Katia and Maurice are falling in love. It is a moment of crystallization and we wanted it to be imbued with total romantic power. And that song has always pulled out all the heartstrings. It was temporary music, but Niko said, “No, I love it, it works great,” and Brian Eno generously allowed us to license it for that scene.
“Fire of Love” has been shown in some IMAX theaters. What was it like for you to see him that way?
I am a twin, so twin metaphors come easily to me. I feel like the two versions are like twin sisters: the same DNA but different personalities. In the incredible IMAX version, the volcanoes feel much more viscerally. In the theatrical version, you absorb more details of the characters. All I know is that Katia and Maurice would be so amused that the film was shown in IMAX, because they lived so long.
What would you ask Katia and Maurice if you had been able to interview them for the film?
That is probably the hardest question of all. There are many things. There are many people in their images who clearly have a life or death relationship with them. There’s a guy in Indonesia who dangles from Maurice’s feet as he dangles over a crater. We couldn’t find out who that man was. But I’d love to know. How was his life? What did he think of Katia and Maurice?
And so many other things. I mean, the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who wrote “The Little Prince”, is mentioned a lot in his writings, and I would love to ask you about him. But in a broader sense, I would love to ask you about your relationship. Maurice once wrote in a book: “For me, Katia and the volcanoes is a love story.” That romance, that whimsy, that love triangle gave us our thesis for the film, but I’d love to hear more in his own words.
Read more from the Guild & Critics/Documentary Awards edition here.
