Birds Come to Die in Peru [Les Oiseaux Vont Mourire au Peru] [Birds in Peru] (1968, Jean Seberg, Maurice Ronet, Pierre Brasseur, Danielle Darrieux) – Classic Movie Review 8336

Writer-director Romain Gary’s 1968 drama Birds Come to Die in Peru [Les Oiseaux Vont Mourire au Peru] [Birds in Peru] stars Jean Seberg as depressed nutty nymphomaniac Adriana, married to a much older, rich husband (Pierre Brasseur), looks for love while having sex with several sailors on a Peruvian beach and at least one woman – ageing prostitute Fernande (Danielle Darrieux) – the madam of a nearby brothel, who takes her in.

Gary’s film, based on his own short story, is bizarrely symbolic, remarkably pretentious, and outstandingly tedious hokum, but it could be amusing if you are in the mood for something ambitious and arty that turns out simply daft. Maurice Ronet co-stars as Rainier, Jean-Pierre Kalfon plays the sinister chauffeur looking for Adriana, and Michel Buades plays Alejo.

This cast was made for quality work though, which they certainly do not get here. The film awkwardly seems to parallel the troubled Seberg-Gary marriage. They were married from 16 October 1962 to 1 July 1970 (divorced). The 24-years-older Russian novelist Gary had an obsessive, controlling influence on Seberg and their marriage was tempestuous. They separated in 1968 after she bore Carlos Navarra’s daughter Nina, who died two days after her birth. Seberg was found dead of barbiturate overdose under mysterious circumstances in Paris on 30 August 1979 and Gary committed suicide by gunshot the next year.

 © Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8336

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