Written and directed by novelist Romain Gary, BIRDS IN PERU is a slow-moving French film intended to bolster Seberg's career, which was flagging at the time (1968), and was also intended as Gary's response to the movies previously made from his books - such as ROOTS OF HEAVEN and LADY L - which he disliked. Unfortunately, Gary the filmmaker was a negligible talent compared with Gary the novelist, and BIRDS IN PERU suffers greatly as filmed drama. It tries for a romantic ambience but is more correctly a somewhat clinical meditation on the life of a suicidal nymphomaniac (Seberg) who, after a night-long orgy wakes up to find herself surrounded by bodies, some dead and some alive. She wanders down a Caribbean beach followed by her somewhat maniacal husband and chauffeur. She wants sex at every turn but is actually quite frigid, which sets up the underlying tension in the movie, which is ineptly explored. Seberg does little but stroll aimlessly throughout the film, apparently pursued by the husband who wants her dead.
While Gary attempted to produce a bitter satire on the feminine mystique, the action, dialog and schematic photography are too vague and arty and achieve only boredom. BIRDS IN PERU is not pointed enough for satire and too unrealistic as straight melodrama. The opening beach orgy scene provides the film's most compelling imagery, with its attempts to visually interpret some of the horrors Seberg's character feels towards sex.
BIRDS IN PERU has a place in movie history as one of the first films to receive an "X" rating in the U.S., but the sex and nudity are quite tame by modern standards and Miss Seberg lounges around in skimpy attire for the bulk of the running time, threatening but unwilling to reveal more.
