Last night I watched the most recent Werner Herzog film, "The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft." It was on TVO, Ontario's version of PBS. A beautiful, unique tribute to a husband and wife pair of volcanologists who perished in 1991 pursuing their passion. As he explains in the opening scenes, it's not a traditional documentary. Remarkably, it's his tribute to them as filmmakers.
Herzog was given unrestricted access to over 200 hours of their raw footage all over the world and Katia's 400,000+ photos. From that he has crafted both a quasi-biography and a story of their evolution as filmmakers. He pairs it with mostly classical choral works in an almost seamless way. I was able to pick out Bach's Kyrie from his Mass in B Minor as well as several movements from Verdi's Requiem. His narration is sparse but insightful. For the most part, the images do the talking. And what images they are! Not many are able to see both the beauty and horror of the Earth renewing itself, but the Kraffts clearly did.
Something to watch for. I'm not sure where you can see this in the States presently, but I suspect Amazon's Prime Video will pick it up. It has already won a 2022 Best Picture award in LA and at least 5 other nominations across the country. A link to the trailer can be found at the DOC LA website.
Herzog was given unrestricted access to over 200 hours of their raw footage all over the world and Katia's 400,000+ photos. From that he has crafted both a quasi-biography and a story of their evolution as filmmakers. He pairs it with mostly classical choral works in an almost seamless way. I was able to pick out Bach's Kyrie from his Mass in B Minor as well as several movements from Verdi's Requiem. His narration is sparse but insightful. For the most part, the images do the talking. And what images they are! Not many are able to see both the beauty and horror of the Earth renewing itself, but the Kraffts clearly did.
Something to watch for. I'm not sure where you can see this in the States presently, but I suspect Amazon's Prime Video will pick it up. It has already won a 2022 Best Picture award in LA and at least 5 other nominations across the country. A link to the trailer can be found at the DOC LA website.