Weirs debut movie, was inspired by two personal experiences. While driving through France, he was stopped by some men in orange vests, asking him to turn back and find a different route. He did not see anything going on on the road, and later he wondered why he accepted their commands so easily. Another time, while in England, he was struck by a newspaper headline about a murder by passion, while a note somewhere else about 23 traffic deaths barely got a note in one corner. It seemed to him that, if you wanted to murder someone and get away with it, you should use a car "accident". From these experiences and thoughts, grew the idea of "The Cars That Ate Paris"
After a car accident, Arthur Waldo wakes up in the small town of Paris, Australia. Because of the trauma of the accident and also loosing his brother at the same time, he has become afraid of cars. He is therefore forced to stay. The mayor takes care of him and makes sure that he gets the politically correct view of the town and its citizens. But as time goes, things get more and more strange. Many more car-accidents happen in the vicinity, and the town folks are acting weird and there seems to be a connection to the cars. The cars becomes more and more aggressive and it seems, that an unavoidable confrontation lurks around the corner.
This is a low budget movie and it shows now and again. But i am not one for ditching a movie purely on those grounds, if it has some good ideas and an interesting story. Now, Weir is the kind of director (at least in this early phase), who does not deliver the story on a platter for you. The plot and the story that is seen on the screen is not to be taken literally. They are instead partly metaphors for a deeper and more unconscious relation to the theme and figuring out what that could be, is mostly the whole purpose of the movie. With the two sources of inspiration mentioned above, in mind, the theme is about apparent difference in the importance of a human death, depending on the cause and an evaluation of the cultural or political reasons for this. The movie blends together humans and cars as an equal cause of killing and basically points out that the death toll in traffic is many times larger than, say murder by passion. But it is never treated as more than a statistic. One scene is particular interesting in this regard. At the costume party all the "veggies" are invited also and they stand there among all the other unharmed people as if this is completely natural. This is a way of saying that all those are killed "by cars" are should be among us but are missing and nobody seems to care or notice. Who are the real killers on the road? The cars? The mechanics? The bureaucrats in the state? Who. This is blended together here in an attempt to provoke the viewer to think about this. Another point is that culture and politics sort of works together in covering up the true nature of the death toll. Culture tends to camouflage psychopathic behavior and since the state (visualized by the mayor and his cronies) behaves psychopathic, culture pretends it does not see the bad consequences of the state. Everyone is dependent on the state some way or another, by pretending that everything is ok. But the state grows and grows and feeds on the lies and in the end will destroy society, no matter how many threats the state makes up (like the traps the mayor tries to control his citizens with). It is really a story about the unspoken things, suppressed by society´s need to conceal the threat of violence by the state.
It has all the trademarks of early Weir, but it does not have the level of emotional impact as one could want. It is a bit all over the place and at times the acting feels too amateurish and sloppy in my opinion. The idea with the cars is interesting and bold, but the execution feels over the top. It has some interest for those who want to follow the development of Weirs directing style, but from a quality standpoint it can´t hold a candle to his next movie "Picnic At Hanging Rock". Recommended only for special interest fans.
Rating: 5/10
