The Cars That Ate Paris

Starring: John Meillon as the Mayor and Terry Camilleri as Arthur Waldo
with: Kevin Miles, Rick Scully, Max Gillies, Danny Adcock, Bruce Spence, Kevin Golsby, Chris Haywood, Peter Armstrong, Joe Burrow, Deryck Barnes, Edward Howell, Max Phipps, Melissa Jaffer, Tim Robertson and Herbie Nelson.
Director of Photography: John R. McLean
Music by: Bruce Smeaton
Written by: Peter Weir, Piers Davies and Keith Gow

Running Time: 1hr, 31min.

While traveling through France, Peter Weir came across several men wearing orange jackets and holding a stop sign, blocking the road. They informed Weir that he could not continue onwards and that he would have to turn around and use another side road. There was no sign of any road work going on but like any normal person, Weir obliged them and took the more circuitous route. The entire episode seemed odd to him and he wondered why he had accepted the word of these men so easily.
        Some time later, while in England, Weir found it interesting that the newspaper headlines were plastered with tales of some passion-induced murder while the far more tragic fact that 23 people had lost their lives in car accidents barely got a small column in one corner. It appeared to Weir that if you were going to kill someone and get away with it, do it with a car accident. They seem to be taken as a simple fact of life.
        From these thoughts came the ideas for The Cars That Ate Paris, the tale of Arthur Waldo, a man who finds himself stranded in Paris, Australia after a car accident that killed his brother. He soon begins to realize that there has been an extremely large number of car accidents in the area and that many of the townspeople are somehow involved.
        This film was made on a tiny budget but was a disastrous box-office failure, leaving Weir penniless.

NOTE: The opening "advertisement", which many viewers seem to take as blatant product placement for Coke and Alpine cigarettes, was actually a spoof in itself. At the time it was made, movies in Australia were often preceded by ads for cigarettes and such. By putting this before the opening credits, Weir was fooling the viewers into thinking this was yet another ad. What a shock when their car suddenly loses a tire and they crash!

Which version have you seen, The Cars That Ate Paris or The Cars That Eat People? Aside from the different names and video covers, the movie inside is different as well. Check out the differences.

Check out a few of the more memorable images from the film in the picture gallery.

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