The Cars That Ate Paris

Dir: Peter Weir

1974

*****

Peter Weir is a great director but he is always going to be remembered for his hits such as Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and Witness. I like Witness to be fair but I would argue that the other two are not his greatest achievements. It’s his early films that I love, obviously Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli are classics but his debut The Cars That Ate Paris is a Ozploitation/Carsploitation masterpiece. If you were to ask me seriously which of his films I like best I’d have to say either The Year of Living Dangerously or The Mosquito Coast but I would argue that The Cars That Ate Paris his his most culturally significant and the king of cult films. It was made during a fascinating time in Australian cinema when many crazy film makers were risking life and limb in making the most outrageous films they could. The Cars That Ate Paris is a sort of horror comedy, full of satire and in the Midnight Movie/Exploitation vein. The film begins with an urban couple driving through the countryside in what looks like an advertisement. This was a parody of a commercial aired on Australian television at the time of the film's original release. It didn’t make much sense to me when I first saw it and it seems many other viewers took it as blatant product placement for Coke and Alpine cigarettes. At the time it was made, movies in Australia were often preceded by ads for cigarettes and such, so by putting this before the opening credits, Weir was fooling the viewers into thinking this was yet another ad but as the story took shape, it was a clear lure into false preconceptions. I liked its quirkiness when I didn’t understand it, I like it still now I have context and it shows the film’s playful nature – important to remember in some later scenes. The ‘advertisement’ scene comes to a striking halt with a fatal accident. It soon becomes clear that the rural Australian town of Paris, where the couple were approaching, arranges fatal accidents to visitors driving through. Townspeople collect items from the luggage of the deceased passengers whilst survivors are taken to the local hospital where they are given lobotomies with power tools and kept as "veggies" for medical experiments by the earnest town surgeon. The young men of the town salvage and modify the wrecked vehicles into a variety of strange-looking cars designed for destruction – most famously a Volkswagen Beatle covered in spikes (keep your eyes pealed for it in the Mad Max movies). Arthur Waldo (Terry Camilleri Napoleon in the brilliant Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) and his older brother George drive though Paris with their caravan where they meet with an accident that kills George outright. Arthur is spared and looked after by the Mayor of Paris, Len Kelly (John Meillon – Walter from the Crocodile Dundee films), who invites Arthur to stay in his home as one of his family; his two young daughters have been "adopted" after being orphaned in motor accidents in the town. Arthur unsuccessfully attempts to leave Paris but due to a previous incident where he was exonerated of manslaughter for running over an elderly pedestrian, he has lost his confidence in driving and there does not seem to be any public transport. Mayor Len gives Arthur a job at the local hospital as a medical orderly. Beneath the idyllic rural paradise of Paris is a festering feud between the young men of the town who live for their modified vehicles that they terrorise the town with and the older generation. When one of the hoons damages the Mayor's property and breaks a statue of an Aborigine the older men of the town burn the guilty driver's car as he is held down. The Mayor appoints Arthur the town Parking Inspector complete with brassard and Army bush jacket that further irritates the young men. The situation reaches its boiling point the night of the town's annual Pioneers Ball which is a fancy dress and costume party. What was planned to be a "car gymkhana" by the young men turns into an assault on the town where both sides attack each other killing several of the residents. Arthur regains his driving confidence when he repeatedly drives the Mayor's car into his former hospital orderly supervisor who is one of the hoons. The film closes with Arthur, and the town's other residents, leaving Paris in the night. The title of the film isn’t as misleading as it may first appear but I’m sure many a person has watched – and not watched because of it. The Cars That Ate Paris brought Carsploitation to Oz – indeed, Australia created the sub-genre, nurtured it and made it what it is. Without The Cars That Ate Paris there’d be no Stone, The F.J. Holden, In Search of Anna, Summer City, Back roads, The Road Warrior, Midnite Spares, Running on Empty, Dead End Drive-In or any of the Mad Max movies. As well as the great John Meillon and Terry Camilleri it stars personal favorites Chris Haywood (Man of Flowers), Bruce Spence (Mad Max 2) and Max Phipps (The Return of Captain Invincible). It’s a one of a kind, one of many brilliant Australian underground films of the 70s that I adore. As I said, king of cult.