The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

Volcanos have always been a source of huge fascination for Werner Herzog. 1977’s LA SOUFRIÈRE was made shortly before a possible volcanic eruption. In 2016, he shot Into the Inferno, which also used film footage by French volcanologist couple Katia and Maurice Krafft. Now he has dedicated a requiem to them. Herzog was able to draw on 250 hours of their footage, “material of unbelievable power and beauty”, as he puts it. The film did indeed become a requiem, a look at life in the face of death. Herzog observes how these two researchers progressively morphed into artists, with their footage, which was shot ever closer to volcanos, reaching ever greater levels of abstraction.