At The Movies: Fire Of Love shows the beauty and devastating power of volcanoes

Fire of Love (PG)

93 minutes, opens Aug 11 at The Projector

The story: French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft were united by their single-minded devotion to the study of volcanoes. This is a documentary of the husband-and-wife volcanologists living and, ultimately, dying for their passion, swept away by a pyroclastic flow off Japan's Mount Unzen in 1991.

Two reasons to watch the 2022 Sundance Film Festival hit:

Fire Of Love will make a convert of you. For two decades, the Kraffts chased eruptions around the world, documenting their discoveries. Theirs was the most spectacular imagery of volcanoes ever recorded.

Director Sara Dosa drew from 200 hours of their 16mm expedition footage plus thousands of photographs, and the all-archival movie eschews hard science for a visual wonder of glowing craters, molten avalanches, ash clouds and orange pulsing lava-like psychedelic art.

This may be your closest experience of nature at its most majestic and devastatingly powerful.

A quasi-poetic narration by actor-artist Miranda July talking up the "love story" is both affected and unnecessary. The Kraffts were remarkable enough as soulmates in intrepid curiosity, never happier than when stomping about acid lakes together. Danger? What danger?

They revolutionised volcanology, and the warning systems and government evacuation policies which save countless lives today are their legacy.

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Prizefighter: The life of Jem Belcher (NC16)

The story: This British production is the 19th-century biopic of Bristol bare-knuckle prizefighter James "Jem" Belcher, who, at 19, became the youngest world champion. His rise captured the moment in history when boxing transitioned from back-alley entertainment to the sport of kings.

Three things to note about this film:

Russell Crowe and Ray Winstone lend support respectively as Belcher's washed-up ex-fighter grandfather and trainer.

Except, wasn't Crowe also a struggling pugilist in Cinderella Man (2005) and Winstone a trainer in Jawbone (2017)? Prizefighter: The Life Of Jem Belcher is dismal, not just because of unimaginative casting either.

Welsh actor Matt Hookings, son of heavyweight champ David Pearce, wrote, produced and stars in a labour of love. His self-regard is staggering. His Belcher is so gifted, he ascends seemingly overnight from impecunious blacksmith to champion of England. He is feted by Regency aristocrats fawning over his "magnificent display of pugilism". Society dames eye him lasciviously, then bed him eagerly.

Nothing convinces, not the jaundiced period lighting and not the characters, including Jodhi May as Ma with a face pickled in misery. Most cheesy is the triumphant uplift of the hero's epic bout of 1805, dubbed The Forgotten Fight of the Century.

The movie is spared a worse rating only out of respect for Belcher.