Birds in Peru
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Romain Gary
Jean Seberg
Maurice Ronet
Pierre Brasseur
Jean-pierre Kalfon
Michel Buades
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the early morning hours after a Peruvian carnival, a young woman named Adriana lies naked and exhausted on a lonely stretch of beach--the final resting place for dying gulls from the nearby Guano Islands. The night before, Adriana left her sadomasochistic millionaire husband and came to the beach with four costumed revelers with whom she hoped to find sexual fulfillment. Tormented by nymphomania, and knowing that her husband and his chauffeur-bodyguard will soon come for her, Adriana dresses herself and wanders into a beachside brothel owned by Madame Fernande. At first Adriana gives herself to the madame and offers to work for her as a prostitute but then changes her mind and returns to the beach. Remembering her agreement that the chauffeur could kill her if she ever succumbed again to her sickness, she attempts to drown herself, but she is rescued by Rainier, a poet and self-confessed failure, who runs a beach cafe that no one frequents. While they make love, Rainier implies that they could be each other's salvation. His suggestions are interrupted, however, by the arrival of the chauffeur and the whisky-sodden husband, who have come to carry out the agreed-upon ritualized execution. Rainier intervenes and is knocked unconscious; a young Indian boy called Alejo, who has been following Adriana, leaps out from a hiding place and plunges a knife into the chauffeur. Ignoring the others, Adriana wanders off alone as her husband picks up the dead chauffeur's cap and hands it to Rainier, who accepts it. As the two men set off after Adriana, the young boy races headlong into the sea.
Director
Romain Gary
Cast
Jean Seberg
Maurice Ronet
Pierre Brasseur
Jean-pierre Kalfon
Michel Buades
Danielle Darrieux
Pierre Koulak
Henry Czarniak
Jackie Lombard
Crew
Jacques Brizzio
Denise Charvein
Fernand Chauviret
Guy Chichignoud
Kenton Coe
Romain Gary
Phuong Maittret
Christian Matras
Valentine Montero
Jacques Natteau
Fred Surin
Michel Wyn
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
The first movie to receive an X rating from the MPAA.
Notes
Opened in Paris in June 1968 as Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou. Filmed on the coast of Spain and in Mauritania.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in France June 1968
Released in United States Fall November 6, 1968
Released in United States November 6, 1968
Feature directorial debut for Romain Gary, who was Jean Seberg's second husband at the time.
Shown in New York City (Film Forum) as part of program "The Films of Jean Seberg" March 15-28, 1996.
c Technicolor
rtg MPAA X
Released by Regional Film Distributors in the USA.
Franscope
Released in France June 1968
Released in United States Fall November 6, 1968
Released in United States November 6, 1968 (New York City)
