The Cars That Ate Paris
Australia • 1974
Director
Synopsis
The debut feature from Australian New Wave legend Peter Weir is a brilliantly original blend of cracked comedy and macabre horror that Stanley Kubrick selected as one his all-time favorite films. Woe be to any outsider who inadvertently stumbles upon the insular outback town of Paris, where the strange citizens subsist through a most unusual economy: deliberately causing car accidents and then salvaging the wreckage for profit. Survivors, if there are any, are similarly harvested for medical experiments. But not all is well in Paris. One unwilling resident (Terry Camilleri) senses something amiss, while the town’s teenage youths have begun a disturbing revolt of their own.
Synopsis
The debut feature from Australian New Wave legend Peter Weir is a brilliantly original blend of cracked comedy and macabre horror that Stanley Kubrick selected as one his all-time favorite films. Woe be to any outsider who inadvertently stumbles upon the insular outback town of Paris, where the strange citizens subsist through a most unusual economy: deliberately causing car accidents and then salvaging the wreckage for profit. Survivors, if there are any, are similarly harvested for medical experiments. But not all is well in Paris. One unwilling resident (Terry Camilleri) senses something amiss, while the town’s teenage youths have begun a disturbing revolt of their own.
Credits
Crew
DirectorPeter Weir
WriterPeter Weir
CinematographerJohn R. McLean
ComposerBruce Smeaton
EditorWayne LeClos
ProducerJim McElroy, Hal McElroy