Darwin was wrong. (2/2)

Change « La marche de l’empereur » soundtrack -voice over, music and songs-, you get a brand new film.

The movie various language versions may share penguins and ice on screen, and preciously little else.

Even the titles have different sub-texts.

In the original French title, « La marche de l’empereur », « empereur » is short for « manchot empereur », a particular type of penguin -for detailed information on penguins, watch the National Geographic rather than the film.

But, in France, an « empereur » is also a short Corsican with foul temper and stomach problems, who still looms large in the collective psyche. « La marche de l’empereur » therefore hints at battles, fortitude in the face of adversity and, considering the weather on screen, perhaps specifically at the retreat from Russia by Napoleon troops in the dead of winter : a military disaster of epic dimension as well as a showcase of courage and resilience.

Like the voice over comparing the penguins’ mating ritual to a « dance », the title also probably refers to Johan Strauss son’s « La marche de l’empereur » (1889), one of his more famous waltzes. If the filmmakers hoped to match the penguins’ footwork to Viennese dance music, they had the good sense to give up when faced with an obvious conflict of tempos.

In contrast to the French original, the film English international title, « The emperor’s journey » sounds trite and potentially misleading, were it not for the movie poster : in how many countries and languages is it clear than an « emperor » is a penguin ?

In the US, though a « manchot empereur » is indeed an « emperor penguin », the « emperor » was dropped altogether -because the name and related constitutional concept are less welcome than in France ?- and the film was released as « The march of the penguins », where « march » keeps alive the French title allusions to music -though nobody in the Strauss family wrote a « March of the penguins »- and the military.

But the film US distributor, Warner Independent Pictures, did much more than just delete an emperor from its title to « localise » the picture to North American taste.

Though the lyrics of the original songs were already in English -a clear sign that the producers consciously aimed their project at the global market- or because they were, as it made them painfully understandable to US audiences, an entirely new musical score was produced.

In addition, as it was translated to English, the film voice over seems to have undergone a substantial rewrite : its US version is trusted to Morgan Freeman alone rather than to a nuclear family trio.

It would be interesting, but even more tedious, to sit through all the foreign versions of the film and see how they differ from one another.

« Farce of the penguins » may soon offer a less time-consuming and hopefully more entertaining alternative. Film is said to be presently in production and described as a « mockumentary » and a « remake » of the original movie -using the same edited footage ?

The « farce » main narrator will be Samuel L. Jackson -Morgan Freeman’s mock alter ego ?-, as if only black actors can make justice to penguin stories ; « characters »’ voices will include Jason Alexander’s, James Belushi’s and Whoopi Goldberg’s.

Maybe this is « La marche de l’empreur » fate : to be endlessly remade and give birth to a new genre : the penguin film.

An admirer of Soviet-style filmmaking will thus create a lyrical ode to the supremacy of collective values and upbringing over bourgeois individualism and nuclear family selfishness and will do so without reediting any of the filmed sequences : nearly all shots show a herd of penguins, where even the more powerful zoom struggles to isolate one individual ; whenever a penguin loner is shown, he is on his way to death ; the penguin family is more a voice over fantasy than an on screen reality.

A sarcastic director, Chabrol ?- will see the penguins as they are actually filmed : rather than champion long distance walkers -Mao-Ze-Dong or Stakhanov style-, a flock of passive animals, sticking to the group heat and safety, scared into perpetual wait as any move could tip the precarious balance of their life toward the unknown.

Could it be that the filmed penguins were actually acting ? The length of the film credits confirms what its visual polish already pointed out : « La marche de l’empereur » was not shot by a couple of penguin enthusiasts stranded on the ice field with one camera and thousands of « manchots empereurs » ; it was a major production, a budget of « Titanic » proportion -and risk- by documentary standards.

The film voice over does not say if penguins are short-sighted, but it is unlikely that the movie substantial crew went unnoticed by them throughout the whole shoot.

How much did the filmmakers’ presence change the penguins’ behaviour ? Is the movie in fact a documentary soap where the characters on screen are constantly followed by cameras but pretend not to see them and self-consciously perform the act of acting as they would without them ?

In quanta physics, whether it is observed or not impacts a phenomenon outcome ; is it also true of penguins behaviourism ? Specialists in the field are welcome to answer.

Of the many men on the ice field, none appears in the film. Man’s absence on screen is as conspicuous as deceptive : the film has very little to do with penguins and plenty with him.
Penguins are nothing but serviceable body doubles.

We do not give a damn about them or their story. They are just a handy and endearing pretext to tell ours once more.

Penguin boy meets penguin girl, they have penguin kid ? No, the actual story line is even more stale : boy meets girl, they have kid.

Penguins interest us only to the extent that we can cut and paste our emotions, values, dreams and clichés on to them.

Animals are great, they cannot speak up and contradict the words we plant into their mouths or the thoughts we drill into their brains.

Cinema used to be able to stereotype minorities, but these good old days are gone : typecast an Italian as a New York mafioso and Little Italy will hire a real one who will prevent you from living long enough to regret your casting misstep.

« La marche de l’empereur » is to penguins what Flaherty’s « Nanook of the North » (1922) was to Eskimos : their official induction into mankind.

Penguins do not protest stereotyping yet, but animal activists will eventually take up their cause. Still, it will be a while before « la marche de l’empereur » is labelled « penguinophobic » and « the emperor’s journey » takes him to the first Penguin Pride Parade.

Until then, Darwin will remain wrong : man does not share one common ancestor with monkeys, but with penguins.