March of the Penguins
Luc Jacquet, 2005, France, USA, Colour, English, 80′ mins, Certificate: U
Every March, the Emperor Penguins are marching. At the end of the Antarctic Summer, on the Earth’s south pole, they begin the journey of their extraordinary mating ritual. So that to become parents and bring their baby up as equals, in the most dangerous conditions, on the spectacular but unforgiving terrain of the frozen tundra.
They do so in style, following an instinctual choreography to the bit of no sound but the wind, the ice, as it moves, and cracks, and booms, and the ocean. No matter that they are the tallest and heaviest of their species, and the only ones who dare to breed during the Winter in Antarctica.
Luc Jaccquet captures all that with a keen, yet tender eye, finding and honoring the small moments of triumph and heartbreak, before opening out his gaze back to the grant vistas of the landscape. The result is an Oscar wining, record breaking* documentary that will seduce your eyes, excite your brain, and warm your heart, like an odd, improvised musical or an edgy romantic comedy you couldn’t have imagined and never thought you needed.
*It is the highest grossing nature documentary ever, and the top 4rth documentary of all time. It is also worth noting that, by the time of the 2006 Academy Awards, this Best Documentary winner had out-grossed all 5 Best Picture nominees ($77 million vs. $75 million for Brokeback Mountain).
Reviews:
“French director Luc Jacquet and a team of incredibly brave (and heavily bundled) documentary filmmakers captured this complicated mating ritual with strikingly crisp photography that’s both grand and intimate. The images of this unforgiving terrain (the work of cinematographers Laurent Chalet and Jerome Maison) are so viscerally evocative, you might find yourself shivering in your seat… ” Christy Lemire, Associated Press
“This astonishing film, shot in the Antarctic, captures sights never seen before. Jacquet’s movie is as visually ravishing as “Winged Migration,” and more gripping.” David Ansen, Newsweek
“Middle America has embraced Luc Jacquet’s film for its purportedly pro-family-values depiction of the emperor penguin’s gruelling breeding process. In fact, it’s the sheer alienness of the penguins’ actions that make the film so fascinating. Imagine if we had to reproduce by leaving our homes every year to walk for miles to a big field, where we paired off and had very public sex before the women wandered off in search of grub, leaving the men starving and holding the baby in subzero temperatures. We’d be on the verge of extinction. Morgan Freeman’s slick voice-over compounds a slightly plodding structure, but the dedication of the penguins – and the cameramen – assure your wonderment.” Nick Funnell, TimeOut
“A perfect family movie, a perfect date movie, and one of the most eye-ravishing documentaries ever made.” David Denby, The New Yorker