Fire of Love: Love Triangle at the Edge of Abyss

Gazing into the abyss

In 1991, when observing the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan up close, Katia Krafft and Maurice Krafft were swallowed by the lava. They are the most intrepid outliers who are disappointed in but also care about humanity.

28 years later, when documentarian Sara Dosa was collecting materials about Icelandic seers for the documentary called The Seer and the Unseen, she accidentally discovered a large collection of footage filmed by the Kraffts during their volcano observations, totalling over 200 hours. All this inspired Fire of Love, a spectacular, eye-searing documentary about the history and science of volcanoes and achingly existential romance.

These footage were not just ordinary scientific observations. Through the lens of Katia and Maurice, the erupting volcanic debris, surging magma, and scorching lava possessed a unique beauty. Dosa was deeply engrossed by these images, and continued to dig through the archives, read the works of the Kraffts, visit their friends and family, and collect past TV interviews. Although she never met or ever talked with them, Dosa felt that Katia and Maurice were her like-minded old friends.

Anyone who has seen Fire of Love will be shocked by the eerie, thrilling, yet highly expressive close-up shots of volcanoes. The red basalt magma, rich in iron, magnetic material, and dissolved gas flows on the black rocks, likening to the breath of a dragon with a temperature of up to 1200 degrees Celsius. With the close-up shots, we can even see the unique texture of the magma, and occasionally it spits out bubbles as if gasping for breath, giving it a surreal and deathly aesthetic. It is a visually stunning film filled with truly jaw-dropping imagery of magma, lava, and the rare beauty found only in the most remote locations on the planet.

Katia and Maurice met in university and fell in love deeply. With a shared disappointment in humanity, they escaped from the bustling post-war society, trying to gain a more primitive experience living on the fringes of human civilization. A perfect meeting of the minds, the two shared a passion for volcanoes that took them around the globe. They often had to climb on rugged and rocky volcanic cones to get as close as possible to erupting volcanoes within safe distance to observe, document, and shoot. All their clips were shot with 16 millimeter film camera, and their work seemed to use what was fragile to record what was invincible. All this had created a sharp contrast of the fleetingness of human lives amid the enormity of volcanoes and geologic time, reminding people of their smallness and vulnerability. Yet through Katia and Maurice’s lenses, we can also feel a kind of lightness. These shots easily bring to mind the French New Wave films, as they share many similarities, whether it’s the interesting quick zoom-in shots or the handheld shaky frames. Some of the first-person narrative (taken from their published books) even evoke the works of Truffaut. All these were influenced by the culture and aesthetic trend in France in 1950s and 1960s.

Like performers, Katia and Maurice were actively self-aware of their onscreen images. Consciously putting themselves within the camera’s field of vision, their tiny selves formed a stark contrast to the humongous volcanoes. These types of images are truly stunning, such as the poster scene of Fire of Love, where a person clad in a futuristic silver protective suit is silhouetted by a shooting curtain of red-orange liquid. It is not a sci-fi film design but a real scene. The images also possess natural artistry, partly because the filmermakers consciously document themselves. “We gaze at the edge of the abyss,” wrote Katia. They are very aware of the risks of the lifestyle they have chosen. “It will kill me one day, but that doesn’t bother me at all,” says Maurice. “I prefer a short life to a monotonous, long one.”

In Dosa’s eyes, the couple has a good sense of imagery. That’s why the film presents a very unique picture of a “volcanic couple” - two romantic, imaginative oddballs with innocent smiles on their faces, resembling characters from Wes Anderson’s films. They would row in a huge sulfuric acid pool, and they would wear metal shells weighing tens of kilograms just to get close to the volcano. One of the iconic scenes in the film features Maurice throwing a stone at Katia’s helmet to test its protective ability, producing a crisp sound.

As a professional filmmaker, Dosa admires the talent of Katia and Maurice in film-making: “I deeply appreciate the way they pressed their imagery and sight to posterity through their use of the camera”. Importantly, behind these aesthetic principles of cinematography lies a different way of experiencing the world, which stands out from others.

Katia and Maurice reminded people of Michio Hoshino, a Japanese photographer. He died from a bear attack in his excursions to record the timeless Arctic scenes as polar bears sauntering side by side through an expansive, frozen environment, a herd of caribou fording a mirror-smooth river, and the Aurora Borealis dancing across the rolling, snow-covered landscape. Another master photographer, Hikaru Imasen, once commented on Michio Hoshino’s work: “It is difficult for a photographer who cannot witness the cycle of life with their own eyes to present the connection between humans and nature through photographs.”

Perhaps this is also the reason why the images captured by creators like Katia, Maurice, and Michio Hoshino, who often live alongside death, are so moving. In fact, in these days drones are common, and it is easy to venture into these uninhabited areas and capture close-up shots with machines. However, it is the scenes captured with living experience and interaction between the observer and observed that truly touch and inspire people. This is not to encourage people to sacrifice for art, but to highlight the vitality of experience in creating insightful images. In fact, merely getting close is not enough. It is a must to approach dangerous subjects to observe the details and see the difference. However, without a deep respect and emotional connection to the subjects being photographed, it is impossible to capture such images.

The love for fire and beyond

“Volcanology is also a science of observation”, Katia said. In the footages by the Kraffts, there’s not only curiosity but also their philosophies on how they reconciled fear, how they navigated through the unknown and uncertainty. Maurice often joked that Katia is cheating on him with volcanoes, for Katia has witnessed 20 more eruptions than him. It is a joke, but it can be seen that within this love triangle of the couple and volcanoes, the latter is an indispensable part of their lives.

Katia also said, “I couldn’t love someone who doesn’t share that love at the top of a volcano.” Maurice wrote in one of his published book, “For me this is a love story with Katia and volcanoes.” Dosa used this sentence as the ending line of Fire of Love. She believes that this is a love story between Katia, Maurice, and volcanoes. “Of course, We really wanted there to be a dreaminess, of falling in love for the film’s telling of a love story. We also wanted to draw a parallel between falling in love and research. The more you learn about a topic, the more that intimacy that comes with knowing, and the more curiosity for it will drive scientific inquiry; this can also be compared to the process of falling in love.”

“Love is understanding’s other name,” Fire of Love quotes this sentence from the famous zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh. For Katia and Maurice, they admire each other’s ability and tries to keep up with each other. Maurice once said that he envied Katia’s unique imagination of geology. Katia and Maurice have written nearly 20 books, including very serious popular science books, books written in the first person perspective and even in the form of poetry as well. They often describe the volcano as a waking monster, a monster they particularly love. It was clear that they recognized the lifeforce in volcanoes and connected to that behind the cameras. That was something that they really hoped to communicate in their work, not just scientific knowledge. The way that they lived their life and the way they shot their material also allowed others to enter into a relationship with volcanoes in their own way. Whether it’s just through curiosity or by perceiving, it’s the ontology of volcanoes. In these moments, the volcano is not just an object of study; it is as if it has its own subjectivity. Maurice often uses the word “un-requitedness” to describe the volcano. We can even imagine him saying in his usual relaxed and humorous tone, “Why don't you love me back, volcano?” But meanwhile, Maurice knows that he will never get the answer. The two lovers walk toward an abyss that has no feelings, yet provokes so many feelings in them. This is the most romantic part of their love.

You can really sense Maurice and Katia’s love towards each other in the footage. But missing from the archives were holding hands, kissing, even shots of them being together. Yet in every frame of the 16mm film, there are traces of love not presented in traditional ways. Sometimes it is enough to see them stand together with the volcano in the lens. For example, in Katia’s lens, Maurice playfully sticked his nose into the crater to feel the scale and speed of volcanic activity. And Maurice’s lens also focused on Katia’s rosy little face, showing her reaction to high temperature.

We can sense the love by interpreting the scripts, structure of the content and body language, even if only one of them is in the camera. “There’s the boiling lava that can indicate early love, and when their passions first ignited, all the way to the explosiveness that can culminate when passions meet and collide. As well as imagery of destruction the moments of heartache, the pain and the feelings of being destroyed.” Volcanoes certainly lend themselves well to tell that piece of the love story.

Dosa once talked about this in an interview: "it’s vital to see nature as sentient, without anthropomorphizing, as nature in its basic image is extremely meaningful. It’s something I'm really inspired by. To think of volcanoes having intelligence, which they do. I'm very curious about what that means. And, also, politically, there’s so many narratives out there about how the Earth is dead. It’s a resource to be capitalized upon or extracted from. And so I think showcasing how alive and powerful the natural world is, and also that humans are not separate from it. We're all part of it.”

So Katia and Maurice also constantly remind us the inherent unknowability of the natural world even when applying rigorous scientific methodology to study it. As Hoshino Michio wrote in Tabi o suru ki, “nature hides a power that human wisdom cannot know, and possess the will that nullify everything combined”.

Fire of Love is not only an existentialist romance, but something far more than that. Through their expeditions, with their measurements and experiments, the Kraffts contributed tremendously to our current knowledge about volcanoes and the dangers they pose to human. They wrote books, appeared on TV, sold video tapes, not just to monetize their experience and pay the bills for exploration; more importantly, though disappointed in people, Katia and Maurice care about people. They go to lots of countries and devote much effort in relieving the volcanic disasters at the front-lines and spreading volcanic science with the hope to aware authorities of the dangers of volcanoes. This documentary contrasts the deadly power of volcanoes and the readiness of human who try to save more life from the disaster, featuring a couple with passion and determination.

Outliers who live with the inner flow of life

Interestingly, Dosa pays “special attention” to Katia in the film, which restores the equal importance to Maurice and Katia. When browsing through the archives, Dosa realized that there is obvious gender discrimination in society. Many interviews centered on Maurice, and celebrities referred to Maurice as the “great volcanologist,” while Katia is referred to as “Mrs. Krafft”. There is far fewer coverage on Katia, but Dosa discovers that her personality, insights, and contributions to science were no less than Maurice’s. Katia is very brave and full of curiosity. At the same time, her understanding of fear is profound; as evidenced in a line from Katia, “Curiosity is stronger than fear”. So Dosa draws inspiration from Katia and decides to apply a narrator to the story with a tone called “deadpan curiosity”, guiding the audience gently into the story.

“When humans try to make meaning out of natural world, there is a tendency to anthropomorphize nature, and to make nature human in a way, allowing for a very personalized relationship to grow.” says Dosa. As a director who is interested in human and non-human relationships, Dosa is interested in subjects about humanity intertwined with nature and the mysticism of that. Reflected in her other work The Seer and the Unseen, these “seers” in Iceland are not people who communicate with spirits as we usually know; they can communicate with the elves hidden in moss and trees. In Iceland, some places are so quiet, you can't even hear the sound of birds. Except for the breath of humans and the breath of the earth, you can't hear anything. If you calm down and listen to the silence, you can connect to the elves.

Although humans are small, they can also feel the powerful force of this planet through their own bodies. Although things like volcanoes seem so distant and inaccessible, magma is always rumbling under our feet. Humans can actually connect to the earth.

Coincidentally, in the book Tabi o suru ki Hoshino Michio wrote about his friend X, who loved exploring nature and was swallowed by a volcano. A dormant mountain from the Edo period suddenly erupted one night, taking away X’s life. “In his last moment, did he turn around and gaze at the erupting volcano in front of him?”

We may never know his answer, just like we will never know what Katia and Maurice thought in their last moments, as they only left behind a watch at the eruption site. Hoshino Michio believes that “X has entered an extraordinary time and space”

“Parallel to daily life, hidden deep within, there is something that cannot be captured by the naked eye, something that can shake one’s own existence... What we want to pursue is this 'other reality'. Whether it is nature or human life, what we are searching for is a mirror that can reflect our true selves. And that mirror must be one that makes people’s hearts pound and is clear and transparent...”

Whether it is X, Hoshino Michio, Katia, or Maurice, their lives remind us that besides traditional norms, there are other standards in the world, and we can also use a “very personal, farthest from societal standards” perspective to view success or failure.

“What a colorful life. Most people live a life of 'wanting to achieve something', but his life is incredibly spontaneous. Is this what it means to 'live along with the natural flow that is innate to oneself'? said Michio.

Because X once said, “At first, everyone follows the inner voice of their own and go chase the natural flow. It’s just some people quit doing so when they are still very young and tries their best to get ashore”.

But still, there are people who committed to the inner flow and live an extraordinary life.