ICE, ICE BABIES ENDEARING SUBJECT OFFERED 'MARCH OF THE PENGUINS' CREATOR EMOTION TO RIVAL ANY HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

Emperor penguins are the civil servants of the animal kingdom. It's a life of commuting, waiting around for something to happen and, very occasionally, mating.

Like petty bureaucrats, these birds are generally monogamous, rarely picky about food and uncomplaining about the weather. They know how to kill time, dress well and mind their own business. An existence, ultimately, of beak, not peak, experiences.

Those are just a few of the impressions gleaned from the thoroughly entertaining ``March of the Penguins,'' director/biologist Luc Jacquet's nature documentary (narrated by Morgan Freeman) about the Emperor penguins' long annual trek across the Antarctic. Shot over a year, the film reveals the flightless animals' quest to find a mate and start a family.

``I knew where and when to make the film,'' the Paris-based Jacquet said. ``The only thing left was to wait for the actors to show up. We knew what was going to happen, we just didn't know how it would unfold. This was Antarctica and penguins are animals.''

The cold-climate courtship begins with a flightless migration in which our vibrantly feathered friends trudge up to 75 miles across the continent by foot, in freezing temperatures, in brittle, icy winds and through deep, treacherous waters patrolled by the intimidating leopard seal.

And you thought you had a rough time getting to work.

Risking starvation and attack by dangerous predators, under the harshest conditions on earth, our penguins are looking for true love, without any help from eHarmony.com.

``It's a great story to tell on film because it's an epic drama of survival,'' said Jacquet, who previously made a documentary on leopard seals. ``And I have to tell you, when you are watching the penguins, you pick up the emotions - sadness, fear, excitement, contentment. I don't know if these are the exact same emotions we have. But the animals do have reactions that remind us of our own feelings.''

To shoot the frequently heart-tugging doc, Jacquet and crew, dressed in the same orange color as Caltrans employees, set up camp at the South Pole for 13 months, with no possibility of sea or air transportation. Stranded, enduring temperatures of minus 71 degrees Fahrenheit and winds of 100 miles per hour, Jacquet's constant presence allowed cameras to capture the full variety of penguin behavior, as well as many bizarre and unique encounters. Filmed in super 16mm to convey the impact of the surreal, alien environment, the astonishing ``March of the Penguins'' also includes underwater footage of the penguins' winter activities, shot by divers.

``There's been a (French) scientific station there for 50 years, so the penguins are accustomed to seeing men in orange jumpsuits, so they don't have any fear,'' Jacquet said. ``They ignored us. But at one point, when the female Emperor penguins were looking for mates, they very obviously looked us over.''

The 80-minute ``March of the Penguins'' (``La Marche De L'Empereur''), a production of Warner Independent Pictures and National Geographic Feature Films, opens Friday at the Pacific ArcLight in Hollywood, the Laemmle Monica in Santa Monica, and July 1 at the Town Center in Encino and the Playhouse in Pasadena.

``It was a project we couldn't resist,'' said Adam Leipzig, president of production of National Geographic Feature Films, which co-presented the award-winning ``The Story of the Weeping Camel.''

The Emperor is the largest of the 17 species of penguin, with an average length of almost 4 feet and weight of almost 70 pounds. They spend their entire lives on the cold Antarctic ice and in its waters, dodging the pointed teeth of the leopard seal. On land, they stand together in a huge, huddled mass.

Despite the long months of milling around, penguins enjoy short bursts of affirmation. In the year's most tasteful love scene, the ``March of the Penguins'' camera discreetly turns elsewhere during a moment of intimacy.

``For me, there's a difference between pornography and eroticism,'' Jacquet said. ``And I prefer eroticism.''

Knowing the temptation to ham it up for the cameras, did Jacquet notice any evidence of overacting on the part of his actors? ``They're definitely not Hollywood penguins,'' he said. ``They didn't do anything at all to show off or attempt to please us.''

And showing off comes naturally to these beasts, who are among nature's most ardent parents, even though the female simply heads for the open sea to feed for two months after laying a single egg.

That egg remains with dad, who performs an elaborate dance of balancing it on his feet and covering it with his pouch, a very warm layer of feathered skin designed to keep the egg cozy. There the males stand, for about 65 days, through icy temperatures, cruel winds and blinding storms. Eating nothing the entire time. No pizza, no beer, no Doritos.

Two months later, in one of this wonderful documentary's best scenes, the females return from the sea, bringing food to feed the now-hatched chicks. While initially giddy to see their common-law wives, the males eagerly leave for their own fishing expedition at sea, and the mothers take over care of the chicks.

``They're very endearing creatures, with striking human qualities,'' Jacquet said. ``I think we can see a lot of ourselves in their lives.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

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