Review of The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) by Stuart K — 06 Feb 2015
The directorial debut of Peter Weir, who up until then had made short films, documentaries and TV shows in his native Australia. This film was inspired by a holiday Weir had undertaken in Europe, with strange towns he visited off main roads.
It was financed by the Australian Film Development Corporation to the tune of $250,000, and made in little under a month, and it's a good schlock film. Paris, New South Wales is a seemingly peaceful town, but it has one hell of a dark undercurrent.
The locals of the town, led by Mayor Len Kelly (John Meillon), arrange fatal car crashes to anyone who passes through the town, and they salvage the cars, and the survivors are lobotomised and kept for medical experiments.
However, when Arthur Waldo (Terry Camilleri) and his brother, George Waldo (Rick Scully) are caught up in an accident where George is killed, Len spares Arthur and has him live in his family home. Big mistake, as Arthur has a dark past, and he uses this to his advantage to try and make an escape from Paris.
It's a dark and disturbing film, but amazingly, it has a wickedly black sense of humour too. It has some great stunts as well, which come out well on film considering it was done for almost next to nothing.
This got Weir's career off to an excellent start, and Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Gallipoli (1981) soon followed.
This review of The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) was written by Stuart K on 06 Feb 2015.
The Cars That Ate Paris has generally received mixed reviews.
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