Running Time: 88 Minutes
Certification: 15
Starring: John Meillon, Terry Camilleri, Kevin Miles, Max Gillies, Rick Scully, Danny Adcock, Bruce Spence
Across his long and storied career, writer/director Peter Weir gave cinema numerous classics such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dead Poets Society, and The Truman Show. It's fascinating to see what preceded all of those by returning to The Cars That Ate Paris, Weir's first full-length feature which was also part of the Australian New Wave movement.
The film opens resembling a slick advert, as a couple enjoy a lovely day by taking a drive through the countryside. It appears to be an idyllic time as they shop, smoke, and drive about, until things take an unfortunate turn. Everything changes in an instant when one of the front tyres separates from the car, sending the vehicle off the road and causing an accident which leaves no survivors.
Following on from that startling opening, the focus is upon brothers Arthur (Terry Camilleri) and George (Rick Scully), who travel across Australia in a caravan searching for work. After a collision with an oncoming car, Arthur awakens in a small-town called Paris to find that George is dead and their vehicle was destroyed. He is unsettled by this strange town where there are high numbers of road accidents, the hospital is full of brain-damaged crash victims, and the feral youth rule the streets in souped-up cars.
At the centre of this film is Arthur's guilt-ridden state, feeling like a burden due to his inability to drive. He just wants to move on from this town, but manipulations keep Arthur there as the mayor wishes to make him a citizen. Yet, the more that Arthur resists, the more desperation sets into the mayor's actions.
Tensions rise as the town's youths terrorise the citizens, utilising the vehicles which they have transformed into imposing monstrosities set to cause destruction. The divide between generations is a familiar theme, but this one is compounded by the town's way of boosting their economy, as they cause car accidents near Paris in order to scavenge from the wreckages. It is a small-town with such violence and disrespect for life at its core, practically being an open secret, and the impact of such accepted behaviour is clearly shown.
The youths learn from their elders' actions by implementing destruction as their pastime, while local man Charlie (Bruce Spence) takes on a more unsettling lesson from these practices. This is where the double-standard is most apparent, as the citizens judge these actions as wrong for not aiding Paris' economy, which is an excuse to justify the countless victims claimed before this.
Tensions bubble up between the citizens until it reaches the third-act, which literally transforms into a slow-moving car crash as enough becomes enough, when this behaviour becomes too much for all to take. While it is fascinating to see the cars in such furious ways without being fast, it is representative of how this film is more low-energy that one would expect. Considering how key vehicular mass-murder is to this story, it is unfortunate how often it can feel rather sedate and a struggle to make sense of.
Regardless of that, the influence of this debut can be felt in the Mad Max series, particularly when a visual reference to the spiky car is made in 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. Along with its attention-grabbing title, The Cars That Ate Paris is a fascinating look at the early career of Peter Weir, and an interesting peek at Australian cinema.
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