The Cars That Ate Paris 4K (1974) and The Plumber (1979)

“Impressive Package of Early Peter Weir Works”

The BFI are releasing, in a limited edition two disc set, with either one 4K UHD disc and one Blu-ray or two Blu-rays depending on your preference, director Peter Weir’s first feature film, along with his later THE PLUMBER (1979) featured on the second disc.

Disc One: The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)

The residents of the small Australian town of Paris have developed a novel way of sustaining their town: they set traps for people driving past so that they crash. The townsfolk strip the cars and, depending on their mental capacity after the accident, the victims are either absorbed into the community or become fodder for the local doctor’s brain surgery experiments, with most of them ending up as long-term psychiatric patients on Bellevue Ward at the Paris hospital. Arthur (Terry Camileri) is ‘lucky’ enough to be forced into joining a community where the bizarre annual local ball and the frustrations of the local youth in their souped-up salvaged cars are all going to collide.

THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS is a strange film that’s difficult to categorise. Featured in Philip Strick’s book Science Fiction Movies it isn’t SF really, unless you imagine we are seeing the behaviour of a small town just a few years into the future. Indeed, you can see a young George Miller relishing the mad vehicles and car crashes and saying “See? THAT is what I want for MAD MAX”.

It’s not really a horror film either, although it certainly has horror elements and that is how its director describes it in the extras. However, it’s also easy to see Peter Weir’s Monty Python-style group TV origins as well, and sometimes the film feels a little like a bizarre French black comedy (perhaps the name Paris isn’t so random after all). Castwise there will be some familiar faces for film fans including John Meillon from CROCODILE DUNDEE as the town mayor who runs everything, Bruce Spence from MAD MAX 2 and a hundred other highly recognisable character roles as one of the locals and Kevin Miles, veteran of literally hundreds of episodes of Australian television, as the doctor. 

Extras include a commentary track by Australian film expert Dr Stephen Morgan who, amongst other things, helpfully contextualises the film in relation to the state of small Australian towns at the time. Morgan also contributes an essay to  the accompanying booklet. There are two Weir-directed short films: 3 to Go: Michael is a 31 minute 1970 black and white piece commenting on contemporary youth, whereas Incredible Floridas is a 12 minute 1972 documentary short (12 minutes) about the avant composer Richard Meale and his piece of music which was inspired by the writings of poet Arthur Rimbaud.

There is a new interview with star Terry Camilleri (21 minutes), and archival ones with producer Hal McElroy (6 minutes), a 2003 interview with Weir about the film (11 minutes) and a longer career-length Guardian interview from 1985 which runs 70 minutes and is provided as an extra commentary track. There’s also a 15 minute video essay about the film from Chris O’Neill and the usual image gallery and trailer.

Disc Two: The Plumber (1979)

While her husband Brian (Robert Coleby from The Young Doctors and Chopper Squad) is busy engaged in medical research at the university, Jill Cowper (Judy Morris who also co-wrote the animated penguin movie HAPPY FEET) stays in their campus accommodation studying for her masters degree in anthropology. Her peaceful days are interrupted by Max the plumber (Iver Kants) who proceeds to turn the family bathroom, and thereafter her life, completely upside down, and not in a comedy way. Eventually things get so bad that Jill has to resort to desperate measures to get rid of a man who may be simply a ‘harmless character’ or a gaslighting maniac.

THE PLUMBER feels like an Australian take on the works of British writer Alan Ayckbourn, taking what initially seems to be a simple domestic situation and quickly escalating it to unbearable intensity. Weir keeps everything tight and at 77 minutes the tension never drops. It’s a fascinating well-made and well acted piece that Weir made after his classic THE LAST WAVE (1977).

Extras on disc two include a chatty commentary between Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson, an eight minute interview with Weir about the film from 2008 and, perhaps most interesting of all, Peter Weir’s Dream Within a Dream, a 19 minute installation piece that uses alternate takes and unused footage from his classic PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK alongside a new narration Weird recorded for it. Some of the footage looks a little rough but this is still essential viewing for PICNIC obsessives and a very nice addition to what is a very well put together set of early Weir works. Finally the set also comes with a booklet which features writing on both films as well as a Weir interview. 

Peter Weir’s THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS in 4K and THE PLUMBER in 1080p are being released by the BFI in a limited edition two disc set (one UHD & one Blu-ray or two Blu-rays), as well as on Apple TV and Amazon Prime on Monday 25th May 2026