A conversation between Topiary and Alisa as we debate the virtues and complexities of these two different films about French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft that are created with the same archive of imagery. Mid-way through the episode, we are joined by our special guest, Toby Ashworth, an expert on documentaries about geology. Toby brings his knowledge about the history of volcano films to our discussion of the uncanny relationship between Sara Dosa’s film Fire of Love (2022) and Werner Herzog’s requiem The Fire Within (2022).
Show Notes:
In this episode Animal, Vegetable, Mineral show hosts, Topiary Landberg and Alisa Lebow, discuss the unusual phenomenon of two films released in the same year using the same archival material, to very different ends. In 2022, Sara Dosa premiered her second feature, The Fire of Love about the French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, at the Sundance Film festival, igniting an historic bidding war eventually won by National Geographic. Much more quietly and with little fanfare, veteran filmmaker Werner Herzog released his similarly titled film The Fire Within about the same volcanologists. While Dosa’s film is framed as a love story, Herzog presents his work as a requiem for the deceased filmmakers, who perished during a volcanic eruption in Japan in 1991. Because the Kraffts shot some of the most mind-bogglingly stunning footage of pyroclastic volcanic eruptions ever captured on film, it is fascinating to see how differently the same archival material is handled by these two filmmakers. Topiary and Alisa don’t necessarily agree on which is the better film or why, but in the process of their back and forth, the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches are discussed.
Enhancing this lively debate is the interjection of an interview Topiary Landberg conducted with a PhD researcher at Cambridge University, Toby Ashworth, who writes about geologically focussed documentary with a particular focus on volcanoes. Ashworth proves to be the perfect interlocutor to deepen the consideration of these two important and impressive films and provides valuable historical context on the precursors to Kraffts and these two recent films about them. The episode concludes with thoughts about how the two films complement each other and might be taught together in documentary film classes, comparing and examining the stakes of working with archival footage.
Filmography:
- Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, 2022)
- The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (Werner Herzog, 2022)
- Maurice and Katia Krafft: Au rythme de la terre (To the rhythm of the earth) (Maryse Bergoznzat, 1995)
- Haroun Tazieff (1914-1998), Franco-Belgian volcanologist-filmmaker.
Information about our guest:
Toby Ashworth is a Ph.D candidate at the Centre for Film and Screen at Cambridge University who specializes in geology and documentary film.
Toby’s publications:
’Tectonic Memories: Film, Geology and Archives in Diana Vidrașcu’s Volcano: What Does a Lake Dream? (2019)’, Studies in World Cinema (open access) https://brill.com/view/journals/swc/3/1/article-p104_006.xml?language=en
‘Une nouvelle découverte du monde’: Chris Marker’s global geological imaginary, French Screen Studies (open access). (This article is about Chris Marker, volcanoes, and Haroun Tazieff, who he mentions in the episode.) https://doi.org/10.1080/26438941.2024.2441003