The Cars That Ate Paris (1976)

Peter Weir must have been an angry young man as his first film makes fun of every level of society. The corrupt, bumptious, mayor of the two-bit New South Wales town is the obvious fall guy, but no single character escapes Weir's wrath. You might expect the wild, local youths with their vitality to provide the film's conscience, but they are ultimately portrayed as dumb, reactionary yokels whose demise is mocked. Tellingly the film's key line, 'I can drive', is used to belittle the death of the gang member we get to know best. However, Weir goes too far by mocking the audience. Our hero is a pathetic emotional wreck who barely speaks, while many scenes are dragged out with ponderous monologues and plodding development, as if Weir is saying 'you've consumed this sort of rubbish before, now I am going to serve it up to you in a dark satire. Can you tell the difference?'. The Cars That Ate Paris is best watched with the fast forward in your hand, but do not skip the brilliant finale in which the sordid little town gets its just desserts.

A movie done in style, all about relations between people, not normal people but where everyone is insane to varying degrees. These insane people try to create a town whose purpose, whilst fulfilling the normal needs is done in an insane fashion. They trap passing motorists at night and run them off the road. Should they survive they handed over to a macabre doctor who lobotomises them with a power tool to become his, experiments. There cars are stripped of any valuables than burned. Any equally disturbed individuals are recognised and kept to become a part of the insane community. To be best enjoyed as art background when suitably intoxicated and quietly partying. A movie clearly done to be enjoyed in this style, as it drifts from sane to insane in the same activity, as moments drift from sense to senseless. A movie that keeps you hanging on the edge of having a plot, of accelerating the story, of having real meaning only to leave you drifting along with it.

This is the biggest piece of crap i've ever watched, There's no real story to it and has some of the worst acting i've ever seen....Pity i can't give this shite any lower than a 1. its driving me mad just thinking bout it. The director should be shot for unleashing such a monstrosity upon us. But its not only the directors fault, the dam writers are to blame also. I'd get a better story off my daughter and shes only 4. Now i don't want to be insulting the Australians but they ain't the most talented people wen it comes to movies r acting, except for a few actors. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPP

This truly odd and eccentric black comedy is especially worth checking out in order to notice how drastically Peter Weir's filming style changed from dared and out-of-the-ordinary cult in the 1970's to dull and politically correct rubbish in the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's. No matter how popular and acclaimed films like "Dead Poets Society", "Master & Commander" and "The Truman Show" are, they're blunt compared to the uniqueness and virility of "The Cars that Ate Paris". At least this film doesn't feature tiresome morality speeches and here the dialogues are, in fact, surprisingly controversial most of the time. For example; when explaining to total strangers that you accidentally killed a old man by accidentally running your car over him, do you expect them to reply with: "Yeah, those old pedestrians are a real problem, aren't they?" Welcome to Paris; a remote little outback Australian town where the people go to church, love their families and where the economy entirely thrives on one thing: car crashes! The whole town assists in deliberately causing accidents and then use the parts and accessories as currency to buy stuff in the shops. The outsiders from the accidents either end up in the graveyard, as medical guinea pigs in the local hospital or – as in protagonist Arthur Waldo's case – as brand new residents of Paris and close friends to the mayor. It's truly close to brilliant how Peter Weir manages to sustain the friendly and nonthreatening tone throughout the whole movie. All members of the community are basically insane psychopaths, yet you symphatize with them a lot more because the "hero" (Arthur) is such an antipathetic loser and the young generation (that eventually revolts against the town's ancient habits) are boisterous and uncanny freaks. Even the mayor, who's really the evil mastermind, is portrayed like a jolly figure with whom you'd love to chat. I know that most people wish to forget their viewing of "The Cars that Ate Paris" because it moves slow and looks dark, but the basic premise really is one of the best horror ideas ever coming from Australian cinema. And that WV Beetle covered in spikes is a highly memorable piece of scenery!