The Cars that Ate Paris

Peter Weir’s debut feature - a favourite of Kubrick's - is a mordant black comedy satirising small-town life and a gem of Ozploitation cinema.

While travelling Australia in search of work, two brothers collide with an oncoming car. The sole survivor is looked after by inhabitants of nearby Paris, but their strange behaviour and the frequency of local road accidents unsettle him. It becomes clear that the town’s feral youth rule the streets at night in souped-up cars, and the local hospital is overflowing with brain-damaged crash victims.

Shot in widescreen on Panavision cameras, Peter Weir’s (The Truman Show, Dead Poet’s Society) debut feature is a biting satire of small-town life. It was also one of Stanley Kubrick’s favourite films and a direct inspiration for George Miller’s Mad Max series. Digitally remastered by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.