American Scientist

Sara Dosa’s documentary, Fire of Love, now streaming on Disney+, tells the story of Katia and Maurice Krafft, French volcanologists who not only loved each other fiercely, but also loved volcanoes. Indeed, you might say volcanoes were their entire lives, right up to their deaths.

Volcanology is a science of observation, the documentary tells the viewer—and the closer one gets, the more one sees. And the Kraffts saw more than almost anyone during their time.

The bulk of the film footage is from the Kraffts, along with television clips of both Katia and Maurice. Watching the footage of flowing lava, and images such as one of Katia standing near a crater that is spewing molten lava high into the air behind her, seem to defy reality—but they are very real. The Kraffts talk about how their clothes would get burned or how mishaps resulted in peeling skin. At one point, Maurice fries eggs in a pan on the volcanic rocks, saying he’s usually much better at it. It is awe-inspiring to see their fearlessness in service to what they loved. Their relationship to each other—and to the natural world—appears playful and full of curiosity. Miranda July, the narrator of the film, comments at one point, “Understanding is love’s other name.”

Katia and Maurice met in 1966, married in 1970, and spent their entire lives studying and documenting volcanoes. Both had fallen in love with volcanoes as young children, and continued their scientific education, finding solace in the natural world. Maurice was a geologist and Katia was a geochemist. The Kraffts wrote books and many scientific papers on volcanoes and their eruptions; Katia documented volcanoes through photography, whereas Maurice worked with video. People were interested in their work, and this attention allowed them to travel the world to pursue their passions, while also collaborating with local governments on safety and evacuation procedures in case of volcanic eruptions.

They were working in volcanology as the field was coming together, and the Kraffts voraciously read everything they could to learn about their field, constantly thinking about the Earth, tectonic plates, volcanoes, and more. Their seeming fearlessness made them unique among volcanologists—whereas most people were afraid to get too close, the Kraffts got as close as possible, taking measurements, getting samples, and documenting eruptions.

At one point, when asked whether she thinks she leads an “alternative life,” Katia acknowledges that some colleagues think she and Maurice are “weirdos.” She doesn’t elaborate, but it does make one wonder about how or where the Kraffts fit in.

It’s hard to tell from the documentary how the rest of the volcanologist community or the larger scientific world responded to the Kraffts. Maurice can come off as overly confident, almost irreverent, toward the field and academia. At one point in the film, during footage where Maurice is asked about classifying volcanoes, he says that volcano classification should be banned because each volcano has a personality of its own, and “not to be mean, but it’s the old beards and academics who classify things, forcing a whole generation to use their models.” July acknowledges in the film’s narration that the couple became celebrities of a sort in the field of volcanology—the camera loved them, she says, and the Kraffts were aware of this charisma.

The documentary is full of stunning footage of volcanic eruptions, lava flows, and the Kraffts in dangerous places. What I wanted more of, though, was what exactly the Kraffts did, what they found, and contributions they made to the field. Viewers are told the couple wrote books and papers, but not much is said about what they consisted of. It’s clear that the two drew people to their field with their volcano footage and captured audiences with their interviews. What is less clear is where they fit into the context of their field, especially given statements such Katia’s, which implies that they are outsiders. I would have appreciated hearing perspectives from colleagues who knew them or from historians of volcanology who could have given this kind of context. The documentary, then, is less about the particulars of the Kraffts’ work than it is about a couple who helped bring volcanology to more people.

Maurice Krafft once stated that when he died, “I want it to be at the edge of a volcano.” In the documentary, Katia states that Maurice often led when they would explore together, because she said if he died, she would want to be right behind him. They both got their wishes. He and Katia were at Mount Unzen in Japan, when it erupted on June 3, 1991. The precipitation and fog made it hard for them to see, so they moved a little closer to the volcano to get a better shot. After a lava dome collapsed, it triggered a pyroclastic flow—a very hot (usually more than 800 degrees Celsius) combination of rock, gas, and ash that quickly moves away from a volcano’s vent. The temperature and speed of these high-density volcanic mixes makes them especially deadly, and the Kraffts, along with their friend and fellow volcanologist Harry Glicken, were caught in the pyroclastic flow. Katia and Maurice had thought they were safe about 3.2 kilometers away from the volcano, but the pyroclastic flow found them anyway.

They died as they lived, in pursuit of what they loved, next to the one they loved. The film shows the last known picture of the Kraffts, the day of their deaths, just before the blast: from a distance, standing together looking at Mount Unzen. There is footage from a journalist’s abandoned camera of the eruption and the subsequent pyroclastic flow, but no footage exists of their actual deaths, and the film avoids any specifics or exploitative descriptions. July is matter-of-fact about their deaths, and Dosa made the artistic choice to be sparse about details, letting the slightly underwhelming narration speak for itself. Marks on the Earth indicate that they were next to each other, and two items were found: a camera and a watch, with its hands frozen at 4:18pm.

The film is a compelling look at the relationship between the Kraffts, and shows their passion for volcanology, but the science behind their passions is not a central part of the documentary.