The splendid Arctic Hall of Ice of France 2

Nature, the most beautiful of natures, will slip into your living room.

And more precisely that of Wrangel Island, located in the unpronounceable Chukchi Sea.

An island where the bears, who are among the stars of this

, meet to escape the melting ice.

No tearing so far, no, but some alarming findings.

The images of this documentary, a BBC and France Télévisions co-production, command admiration.

Twenty names of cameramen appear in the credits.

A shorter documentary, following the broadcast of this one, and no less interesting, shows behind the scenes of the shooting.

We see the reporters trying to move forward in snow that goes up to their knees.

Their lunch break?

A sandwich that can never thaw.

Others have waited weeks in front of a glacier to film its evolution.

Their patience was rewarded by an encounter with an arctic fox… who stole their cakes.

Palm of humor

These

are indeed those of animals.

The actor Lambert Wilson, with his warm diction and with the necessary superlatives and sympathetic personification, recounts their lives.

From painted turtles, which pause their metabolism in winter before reviving in spring, to gigantic walruses, which jiggle on the ice floe.

But this gallery of portraits also has a comic aspect.

What could be more delightful than an owl taking its first flight?

Observing a male walrus scratching his back is a measure of the grace of a Donatello.

The palm of the joke goes to the hooded seal, with the looks – forgive us – of a nice drunk.

Their weapon of massive seduction: inflating one of their nostrils like a balloon (with a breathalyzer?).

You had to think about it.

Nature did it for us.

Its mysteries, sometimes sublime, sometimes comical, make all the salt of this film.