THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS

Australia, 1973, 91 minutes, Colour.
John Meillon, Terry Camilleri, Kevin Miles, Max Gillies, Bruce Spence, Chris Haywood, Max Phipps, Melissa Jaffer, Tim Robertson.
Directed by Peter Weir.

The Cars That Ate Paris was Peter Weir's first full-length feature film, made after the short features Holmesdale and Toula in the portmanteau film Three in One.

It is a black comedy, a focus on an isolated community in outback New South Wales who prey on visitors, luring them from the highway, killing them or keeping them prisoner and confiscating all their goods, especially their cars. John Meillon appears as the mayor, the hero is Terry Camilleri - who was to have a cameo role as the viewer in the bath twenty-five years later in The Truman Show.

Weir showed his command of film-making but surprised everyone when his next film was Picnic at Hanging Rock and he found a place in the Australian film industry in the renaissance of the 70s making such films as The Last Wave and Gallipoli. After The Year of Living Dangerously he went to Hollywood with such films as Witness, Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets' Society. He also made Fearless, The Truman Show and was nominated for an Oscar as best director for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World in 2003. Weir is one of the great directors of the Australian film industry.

1. What genre of film did this film fall into? Drama? Satire? horror? A blend of each? Audience expectations from the title and the impact of the film?

2. The contribution of Panavision, colour, New South Wales country locations, the authenticity of scenery and town? The background music?

3. How particularly Australian was the film? How universal in its theme and values? The ambiguous title of Paris? The significance of the final song in French?

4. The dramatic impact of the opening of the film and the impact of the accident? The atmosphere of car accidents and personal involvement in blood and injury? A violent tone for the film?

5. How did the film make the audience enter the town with Arthur and George? The initial scenes of their relationship, seeking employment, decision to go to Paris?

6. The impact of Paris? As a country town in New South Wales, old. old traditions? The portrayal of the people, the way they spoke, dressed, acted? The presentation of typical country people? The particularly Australian flavour of Paris and its people?

7. The historical and background of Australian heritage? The pioneers and the people of Paris with the sense of the pioneers? The pioneer heritage gone selfish and cruel?

8. The portrayal of the generation gap in Paris? The status quo of the old and the hierarchy and rituals they went on with? The rebellion of youth, the violence, the use of the cars for the revolution of youth? The defiance of confrontation?

9. The revolution which culminated in such destruction? What brought about the final revolution in the attitudes of the old? The defiance of the young? The embodiment of the destruction in the voracious cars? Their physical appearance, the eating and destruction of the town, swallowing it up? The old with their false values of murder and greed, scientific experimentation and violence and the violence of the young?

10. The central character of the Mayor, typical Australian mayor, John Meillon and his suave performance? The Mayor's hold over the town? The parody of ordinary dealings in council meetings? The town the planning? The bestowing of the Order on Arthur and his ribbon for Parking Supervisor? The portrayal of the Mayor at home? The lies that he told, the hold over his stepchildren and the way they were adopted, his greed at the stripping of the car? A picture of suavity and corruption?

11. Arthur as the hero of the film? A weak kind of hero? Why was he saved? His role in the town and the Mayor and the townspeople allowing this element of destruction? The hospital and his tour of the hospital? His feeling at home with the family? His attempts to leave? The creating of the job of parking officer and his administration of it? The defiance of the youth of the town? His attempt to confide in the minister? The Mayor pursuing him through the bush? His being forced to stay? What happened to him when he got into the car and started to drive? His murdering of the hospital attendant? The fact that he could drive and his complete callousness? How had Paris transformed him?

12. The portrayal of strength and weakness? A weak hero becoming brutally strong? What was he searching for? The effect of the killing of Darryl?

13. How important were the characterisations of the others in the town? The members of the council, the shop assistants?

14. The sinister significance of the hospital? Darryl taking Arthur on tour? The doctor and his mad experimentations? The matron? Charlie and his madness? Charlie and his violence? A product of Paris?

15. The Reverend Mulray as an outsider? The significance of his sermon? The way that he conducted the funeral rite and his offhand addressing of God? Arthur trying to confide in him? A victim of the murderous Parisiennes?

16. The portrayal of society as a microcosm? The formalised attitudes, the slothful way of life, destruction, greed?

17. The importance of the dance and the old-time country dance? The costumes? The piano player? The people who wore there and the way they greeted one another etc.? Culminating in destruction? The Mayor and his wife?

18. How abrupt was the ending? A culmination of mayhem and abruptness?

19. The importance of cars, technology, society? How was the film a political allegory of the modern world and its status quo, decadence, revolution, collapse? The portrayal of a political allegory via images?