SUCCESSFUL MARCH

HOLLYWOOD — An unsmiling Luc Jacquet leans across the lunch table for dramatic effect. He is about to make a shocking statement. And what he has to say appears to be serious. But how could he possibly be serious?

How could he have the nerve to claim that he was not surprised by the success of his film “March of the Penguins?” How could he say that he wasn’t surprised by its worldwide gross of $106 million, making it the second-biggest documentary of all time behind Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11?” How could he say he wasn’t surprised that his little film about the breeding rituals of emperor penguins in Antarctica would turn Hollywood on its collective ear?

Turns out he couldn’t say it. He can maintain the steely look only for a few seconds. A sly smile gives way to a wide grin which, in turn, erupts into a hearty laugh. He is only joking about not being surprised.

These French filmmakers are a riot.

“I am joking, of course,” he says in heavily accented English, although the rest of his answers were given through an interpreter. Jacquet was in the United States recently to promote Tuesday’s DVD release of “March of the Penguins.”

“The word ‘surprise’ is not powerful enough to describe my reaction to what happened to this film,” he explained between bites of garlic toast at a Cuban restaurant in Hollywood.

“When you think about the origins of this project – that we were a small group of people who never expected to get anything out of it except the pleasure of making the film – it is unimaginable. Any success beyond getting the film completed and into theaters is unexpected cream on top.

“You can’t go out looking for this type of success,” he added. “If you do, it will always stay just beyond your grasp.”

In case you missed it when it hit theaters earlier this year, “March of the Penguins” follows the agonizingly slow annual migration of one colony of emperor penguins across the ice to a favorite breeding area. Buffeted by 100 mph winds and chilled by weather that dips to 37 degrees below zero, the female bird lays a single egg, which is transferred to the care of the male penguin. The male sits on the egg for the next two months while the female makes the long trek back to the feeding areas. Once hatched, the baby penguins can survive only a short time on the nutritional reserves of the males, who don’t eat for the two-month period.

It becomes a life-and-death race against the clock – will the females make it back in time to relieve the males and feed the chicks? With Morgan Freeman’s narration, it seems even more dramatic than it already is.

Jacquet, 37, a former biologist from a small town outside Lyon who didn’t even know how to operate a camera until he joined a documentary film crew in 1992, spent 13 months on the ice with his crew of five.

“We ran out of money so many times, but I never thought the film wouldn’t be completed,” the director said. “I just had faith.”

Once it was finished, he showed it to friends. He said he trusted these friends to be honest with him, and they told him they loved the movie. He still wasn’t sure.

“Then we showed it at the premiere in Paris,” he said. “We showed it in two theaters at the same time, and we got standing ovations at both theaters.

“That’s when I started to believe that people would respond to the film.”

And they did respond. “March of the Penguins” became one of France’s five biggest films of the year – of all films released, not just documentaries.

After seeing the film at the Sundance Film Festival, Warner Bros. bought the rights to distribute the film in the United States and immediately pumped an additional $600,000 into the post-production budget (the original budget was $2.4 million) to add some music but, more important, to change the narration.

In the original French version, the story is told from the perspective of one of the penguins. Freeman was brought in to give a more traditional narration. American audiences liked what they saw – to the tune of $77 million.

While Jacquet admits to some sleepless nights worrying over whether his film would receive enough financing to be completed, he insisted that he has not lost one minute of sleep trying to figure out why his film has been so successful. He says he is as baffled as everybody else.

But if pushed by an inquiring journalist, he will attempt to explain the phenomenon of the penguins.

“First, I believe the species had something to do with it. I don’t think it would have worked with any other species,” he said.

“This particular penguin has star quality and charisma. And it is possible that people identified with the penguins on some level.

“Second, I think people were touched by the story.”

No sooner had Jacquet finished that last sentence that he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

“I don’t really know why it was so successful,” he said. “There was an element of magic to this film. It was sprinkled with fairy dust.”

Jacquet said he has not been back to Antarctica since he completed filming in December 2004.

“But I want to go back,” he said. “I want to go back very much, and we’ve been talking more and more about it. I want to go back if for no better reason than to find some peace.”

Clearly, the last year has been as grueling as it has been triumphant for the filmmaker. But he knows he can’t really go back to Antarctica just yet. He probably has some place he needs to be March 5.

“March of the Penguins” is a likely contender in this year’s documentary Oscar race, but the French filmmaker is almost afraid to talk about it.

It’s not that he is worried about jinxing his chances at the Academy Awards. It just seems as if an Oscar might be too much to handle.

“The whole notion of an Oscar is so imposing,” he said. “It is such a beautiful award, almost a coronation, that I can’t take that intellectual road right now.

“My film has already been embraced by the world. That is enough. I’m not sure it needs an Oscar.

“But if we do end up going to the Oscars, it would be like going to the ball, and our little film would be Cinderella.”