Cars that ate Paris

Peter Weir's first feature film, as for other young Australasian directors of his generation, was a comedy horror. The Cars That Ate Paris, severely cut and given a narrative, was eventually screened in the US as The Cars That Eat People.

Weir co-wrote the screenplay about an isolated rural Australian town, Paris, whose inhabitants survive on the loot of automobile wrecks they engineer. Any crash survivors are lobotomised into "veggies" of specified degrees of incapacity, and hospitalised or adopted by the community. It was divided into two factions: the town's pious elders, led by their autocratic pipe-smoking Mayor (John Crocodile Dundee Meillon), versus anarchic youths who re-jig wrecked cars as hot-rod stunt cars adorned with snarling shark features or porcupine quills.

When a simple-minded visitor, the surviving brother in an auto accident, stays in town, his recollection of flashing lights on the lane approaching the town worries the Mayor. Rather than have the young man lobotomised by the local hospital's eager experimental surgeon, he adopts the lad and appoints him as the town's Parking Officer. This would be credible if the anti-heroic character were played by a young actor, but the production chose an old-faced balding Maltese-Australian newcomer. He detracts from Meillon's finely-balanced portrayal of well-intentioned menace and paternalism.

Meanwhile, the town's semi-zombie scavengers are looking forward to their fancy-dress Pioneers Ball. The auto-racers plan their Car Gymkhana, but the ritual burning of one of their leader's car provokes an assault on the Ball-goers. In the resulting fracas, the simpleton regains his ability to drive, slams a car repeatedly into the young hooligan leader, and drives off into the night sky. The mayor stands alone, his townsfolk fleeing on foot.

In history as in mythology, coastal communities did lure passing ships to destruction or desert bands and village inns pillaged travellers: Weir's storyline adapted the idea as a light satire of contemporary Australian mores. It was the first Aussie movie invited to the Cannes film festival, and Weir's career later blossomed in more admirable directions.

The movie was a debut too for twin producers Hal and Jim McElroy (Hal working alone since 1992, creating, writing and producing many long-running Australian TV series). They also produced Weir's next three features (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, The Year of Living Dangerously). Weir's occasional artfully framed shots, wry humour, concentration on actors' features and teasingly slow editing were signs of cinematic talents that developed well; the movie itself is a slight period piece.