Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou (1968)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Romain Gary

Writers:

Romain Gary (screenplay)
Romain Gary (story)

Release Date:

6 November 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Beneath her icy core lay a desperate desire to love, she would use anyone to find it.

Plot Keywords:

Sexual Encounter | Nymphomaniac | Obsession | Adaptation Directed By Original Author | Based On Short Story

Cast

Jean Seberg	...	Adriana
Maurice Ronet	...	Rainier
Pierre Brasseur	...	Husband
Danielle Darrieux	...	Madame Fernande
Jean-Pierre Kalfon	...	Chauffeur
Michel Buades	...	Alejo
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Henry Czarniak	...	Truck driver
Pierre Koulak	...	Bouncer
Jackie Lombard	...	Rita

Also Known As:

Birds Come to Die in Peru (International: English title) (literal title)
Birds in Peru (USA)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:X

Company:

Universal Productions France

Trivia:

The first movie to receive an X rating from the MPAA.

Movie Connections:

Featured in From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995)

Was this one really such a mess?

I'm tired of reading everywhere that this movie is the worst one ever made, the most unflattering showcase for Seberg, the most perverse story ever told, etc. etc. I think most commentaries grow from its original release (back in 68), when such a subject was almost a taboo on screen, or either from American puritans who couldn't accept Seberg as other thing than a WASP beauty who just smiles and tries to look like a Hitchcockian lookalike blonde. Seeing it nowadays, one might wonder how much of this story was actually based on Seberg and Gary real life, but it doesn't matter anymore. I don't think this picture is neither a masterpiece, neither the terrible mess many people say it was. The atmosphere is incredibly surreal and poetical, the subject treatment never fails into vulgarity, and moreover, Jean Seberg really shines in a very difficult part. She never overacts and gives a performance with such a palette of emotions that one really cares about Adriana, never knowing exactly how is she going to react. On one hand, you tend to condemn her for her behavior, on the other you find her a better human being than all male characters she encounters in her life... You mustn't watch this as an action potboiler but as an European film trying to depict a peculiar woman trapped in a man's world.