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Screen cap from promotional trailer
form y separately published work icon The Cars That Ate Paris single work   film/TV   horror  
Note: Co-written with New Zealand scriptwriter, Piers Davies.
Issue Details: First known date: 1974... 1974 The Cars That Ate Paris
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A small town in rural Australia (Paris) makes its living by causing car accidents and salvaging any valuables from the wrecks. Into this town come brothers Arthur and George. George is killed when the Parisians cause their car to crash, but Arthur survives and is brought into the community as an orderly at the hospital. But Paris is not problem free. Not only do the Parisians have to be careful of outsiders (such as insurance investigators), but they also have to cope with the young people of the town who are dissatisfied with the status quo.'

Source: Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com). (Sighted: 22/6/2012)

Exhibitions

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Notes

  • The trailer for this film is available to view via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKrZ8eTcdK4 (Sighted: 22/6/2012)
  • This film is included in Australian Screen's collection 'Horror in Australian Cinema': http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/cars-ate-paris/ (Sighted: 6/7/2012)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Works about this Work

Dead Heart : Australia’s Horror Cinema Geoff Stanton , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 31 October 2018;
10 Best Australian Films Made by First-time Directors Luke Buckmaster , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 2 March 2016;
The Cars That Ate Paris Rewatched – Freaky Foot-to-the-pedal Action Luke Buckmaster , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 5 April 2015;
— Review of The Cars That Ate Paris Peter Weir , Keith Gow , 1974 single work film/TV
The First Features : The Cars That Ate Paris Tom Hogan , 2014 single work interview
— Appears in: Peter Weir : Interviews 2014; (p. 70-78)
Passionate Amateurs : The Experimental Film and Television Fund and Modernist Film Practice in Australia Lisa French , Mark Poole , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , 24 August vol. 5 no. 2 2011; (p. 171-183) 'Most histories of the dynamism of the Australian film industry in the 1970s explore feature films, but a vital part of the creativity and energy of the revival occurred in the non-feature sector. A significant site of experimentation and originality in form, content and technique was the Experimental Film and Television Fund (EFTF). From its inception in 1970, The Australian Film Institute (AFI) managed the fund until 1977 when the Australian Film Commission (AFC) assumed control of it. Drawing on a series of interviews with key players involved in the fund during the AFI's tenure, and research for the book, Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute (French and Poole 2009), this article traces this significant period of the history of Australian film production, and proposes that the AFI played an important role in promoting modernist film practice, and the Australian film revival, through its management of the EFTF.' (Editor's abstract)
The Cars That Ate Paris Rewatched – Freaky Foot-to-the-pedal Action Luke Buckmaster , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 5 April 2015;
— Review of The Cars That Ate Paris Peter Weir , Keith Gow , 1974 single work film/TV
Uncanny Carnage in Peter Weir’s ‘The Cars That Ate Paris’ Rebecca Johinke , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Studies in English , vol. 36 no. 2010; 'This article examines Australia's first car crash film: Peter Weir's 'The Cars That Ate Paris' (1974). An example of Australian Gothic cinema, the film's dark humour and onscreen carnage acts as a destabilising rhetorical strategy. Automobiles operate as a remarkably flexible organising metaphor in the film where they act as both technological storks and agents of death. This essay interrogates the way that Weir aligns immobile crashed cars with Parisian/Australian culture and with liminal male bodies. It argues that the characters and cars are manifested as uncanny hybrids with both zoomorphic and anthropomorphic qualities. Weir parodies many of the myths about Australia and Australians in this film and in doing so he encourages viewers to consider constructions of nationality and identity.' (Author's abstract)
Gothic Definitions : The New Australian "Cinema of Horrors" Jonathan Rayner , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 91-97) This paper examines ‘ the pervasive presence of horror materials, in both thematic and stylistic terms, within the Australian feature film industry from its re-establishment at the end of the 1960s to the present.’ (p. 91)
Commanding Waves : The Films of Peter Weir Romy Sutherland , 2005 single work biography
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , January - March no. 34 2005;
Passionate Amateurs : The Experimental Film and Television Fund and Modernist Film Practice in Australia Lisa French , Mark Poole , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , 24 August vol. 5 no. 2 2011; (p. 171-183) 'Most histories of the dynamism of the Australian film industry in the 1970s explore feature films, but a vital part of the creativity and energy of the revival occurred in the non-feature sector. A significant site of experimentation and originality in form, content and technique was the Experimental Film and Television Fund (EFTF). From its inception in 1970, The Australian Film Institute (AFI) managed the fund until 1977 when the Australian Film Commission (AFC) assumed control of it. Drawing on a series of interviews with key players involved in the fund during the AFI's tenure, and research for the book, Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute (French and Poole 2009), this article traces this significant period of the history of Australian film production, and proposes that the AFI played an important role in promoting modernist film practice, and the Australian film revival, through its management of the EFTF.' (Editor's abstract)
The First Features : The Cars That Ate Paris Tom Hogan , 2014 single work interview
— Appears in: Peter Weir : Interviews 2014; (p. 70-78)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (10)
Last amended 29 Aug 2022 15:40:10
Peter Weir
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