AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
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)
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
Works about this Work
-
Dead Heart : Australia’s Horror Cinema
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 31 October 2018; -
10 Best Australian Films Made by First-time Directors
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 2 March 2016; -
The Cars That Ate Paris Rewatched – Freaky Foot-to-the-pedal Action
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 5 April 2015;
— Review of The Cars That Ate Paris 1974 single work film/TV -
The First Features : The Cars That Ate Paris
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
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
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 5 April 2015;
— Review of The Cars That Ate Paris 1974 single work film/TV -
Uncanny Carnage in Peter Weir’s ‘The Cars That Ate Paris’
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"
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
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
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
2014
single work
interview
— Appears in: Peter Weir : Interviews 2014; (p. 70-78)
Last amended 30 Sep 2014 14:20:58
Export this record