‘Fire of Love’: A study of two people and volcanoes

Above: The documentary feature "Fire of Love" is slated to open Friday at the Magic Lantern. (Photo/National Geographic Films)

OK, if the announcements from the Magic Lantern Theatre are correct – which they often are – Spokane’s favorite alternative movie house will be opening two films on Friday.

One is a documentary about two thrill-seeking French vulcanologists titled “Fire of Love.” The other is a film that is already playing at AMC River Park Square, “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.”

I saw “Fire of Love” as part of the most recent Seattle International Film Festival (it was streamed through SIFF’s online festival).

A National Geographic production, it tells the story of Maurice and Katia Kraft, a married couple who trekked the Earth studying volcanoes. Directed by Sara Dosa, and narrated by the actress/filmmaker Miranda July, “Fire of Love” captures the obsessive energy of the Krafts through the hours of archival footage that they shot themselves.

“The archival footage is exciting enough,” wrote Washington Post critic Pat Padua, “but editors Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput, who co-wrote the script with producer Shane Boris, make judicious use of split-screen, circular stencils and other visual effects, varying the rhythm just enough to make this world seem even more magical.”

The San Francisco Chronicle’s G. Allen Johnson wrote, “The way Dosa shapes the story, emphasizing the couple’s deep love for each other and their unconventional lives, is what makes ‘Fire of Love’ … one of the most moving and memorable films of 2022.”

And Christy Lemire of FilmWeek added, “It is spectacular. You have to see it in a theater to experience the enormity of it.”

That’s how I wish I had seen it. Maybe I’ll have to see it again.

Anyway, I wrote about “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” last week. I’ll update the rest of the Friday’s openings as the week progresses.