The film starts with the arrival of a mysterious box (via UPS) at a French research establishment. It's opened to reveal a baby penguin - except that after a few seconds it's clear that it's actually animatronic. To enjoy this film properly, you will have to be able to ignore this and a few other fairly low budget special effects together with some pretty unlikely science and a general disregard for the rules around animal experimentation.

The new penguin is being used, it turns out, to harvest something call PPM which confers remarkable immunity to the birds. It's the dream of the institute's much revered founder to carry this immunity across, first to mice, and then to humans. His besotted lab assistant, Christophine, played by Charlotte Le Bon is there to help him in any way she possibly can.

All that's needed now is the suspicion that the PPM needs to be "activated" by vigorous one-on-one coupling, and the stage is set for some serious action very much reminiscent of the old school British Carry On comedies. Laboratory mice, unaccountably unwilling to test out activating the PPM, are encouraged using "the hormone" which is sprayed liberally around the institute from what look like deodorant cans - with the inevitable results...

The repressed Professor Quignard, head of the institute, is played by Guillaume Canet, generally playing it pretty straight. But this is the part that would have been taken by Kenneth Williams. It's hard not to imagine him hamming it up as he would have done, in his own particular way.

In some parts, though, this film is naturalistic, the acting is good and there is a little depth to some of the characters. It's a bit more than just a Carry On in French. 6/10.

As passionate as surreal, a beautiful soundtrack to pack a romantic science fiction film, somewhat bizarre, but totally valid, we feel involved, we get infected with the hot scenes, and finally we hope that the research works, despite the unethical content incorporated into the scientific process... It is worth enchanting if...

After spending the day watching films from three excellent French New Wave directors,I decided that I would wrap up my French movie viewing day with something completely different. Eyeing Netflix UK's limited French selection, I found a unique-sounding title which led to me putting my heart in the Arctic.

View on the film:

Moving from shorts to feature films for the first time, writer/director Marie Madinier displays an impressive level of ambition, but an awkwardness in the execution. Starting with scientists looking at mice have sex,the screenplay by Madinier struggles to find a consist tone, via a tender Indie Drama exchange between Christophine and Quignard, (played by a sweet Charlotte Le Bon & Guillaume Canet) being undermined by the very next scene hitting a sex Comedy gag. Frosting the screen up with Claude Miller's former cameraman Pascal Marti ,Madinier appears more sure-footed in the directing style,with the human sex scenes having a breezy mood,and a tasteful use of CGI warming the Arctic heart.