Maybe something less heavy would have been in order, but the volcanic spectacle of the movie was certainly a good match. It was no Beasts of No Nation in terms of depressing subject matter for a tree decoration movie, but Fire of Love does indeed end with both of its main characters dying -- which is no spoiler, because it's one of the first things you learn about them and is in every bit of promotional material related to the movie.
When I first heard that a documentary had been made about two married volcanologists who had perished in the line of duty of their passion -- not unlike Timothy Treadwell, made famous in Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man -- I assumed they looked something like this:
When in fact, Katia and Maurice Krafft looked like this:
The difference between the two is how Hollywood would cast them and how real life did cast them.
This is not to say that the Kraffts were ugly. But it is to say that they look more like scientists than L.L. Bean models, which is what the first two people are -- and which is very similar to how they would be cast when/if there is a narrative film version made of their story.
It was interesting for me to consider, though, how much of my expectation to feel sorrow at their tragic passing -- 30 years in the past though it may be -- was bound up in the idea that they would be conventionally beautiful, more like Jack and Rose going down on the Titanic than two eccentrics risking life and limb on the edge of a volcano. I won't say it's likely, but it's certainly possible that more conventionally beautiful people would not have gotten into that line of work in the first place.
And I think the expectations were set by the title Fire of Love, which really places an emphasis on this being a love story, not a story of scientific exploration. And I'm sure it was, though Maurice Krafft's video footage -- oh so much wonderful video footage -- understandably does not highlight any moments of intimacy between them. In fact, the persona they present to the camera is more one of an odd couple, with playful banter directed at one another, and relatively few deep and soulful looks.
And when we are expecting a tragic romance, one that ended when they were both buried in an avalanche of soot, the movies have trained us to envision two people like the L.L. Bean models above. The fact that they are beautiful makes their untimely loss all the more tragic.
Never mind young. When they died they were 49 and 45 years old. That's not "old" of course -- I'm 49 now, and don't you dare call me old -- but it's not the platonically ideal 32 years old, old enough to have had ten good years in volcanology before meeting their makers. Old enough to believably be established figures in their field, but not old enough to have any gray hairs.
See that's Hollywood thinking again.
So who plays them in the movie?
I don't know, how about John Krasinski and Emily Blunt? Blunt is two months away from turning 40 and Krasinski is three years into his 40s. The fact that they are married in real life probably adds an element of tragic romance to the whole thing, as it assumes they will have good on-screen chemistry.
I really liked Fire of Love -- how close it gets to the top of my 2022 list is something that I'm still considering, and will be revealed in a month's time.
But I'm being honest with myself when I ask if it wouldn't end up higher ... if Maurice and Katia looked like this:
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