The Criterion Chronicles - The Cars That Ate Paris

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither...

The town of Paris, Australia has a secret. Its citizens orchestrate auto accidents for people passing through, then they scavenge the wreckage for its valuables. The film begins with brothers Arthur and George stumbling into the town while towing a caravan and looking for a place to sleep for the night. They are met with the inevitable careening off of a sheer cliff, killing George. Arthur is left to recover in a town that murdered his brother and now has plans to keep him in their extremely weird company.

I'm a big fan of arthouse films from around the world and different eras of filmmaking. I've probably seen

more Kurosawa than Spielberg and frequently champion films that are more ponderous than visceral; more meditative than exploitive. All of this notwithstanding, it is often very easy to underestimate the value of the many cult classics and B roll gems from various regions and times in cinematic history. These films often tell a far more revealing story that relates more specifically to the turmoils and tribulations of the culture in which they were conceived. While auteurs like Renoir, Lang and Haneke have done amazing jobs at exploring artistic concepts and discovering universal truths, it has been the genre makers like Alex Cox, Seijun Suzuki and Roger Vadim that have more accurately portrayed the general attitudes and angst of their surroundings. Larger budgets along with more artistic prestige have afforded some artists the freedom to explore topics that are more relatable to all people and not confined to the limits of space and time. Whereas, films that are restricted by funds and experience will often be required to tell a smaller and more local story. This is one of those films. As the doctor in the film says: "We get far more opportunity to do experimental work in the field of surgery and psychiatry than your city experts. This is where the really exciting work is being done..."

I really enjoyed the crescendo of this film. It begins with a glimpse of bizarre and gradually ascends into a very lovable form of bat-shit craziness that had a lot of fun with. It was filled with some very standout performances by John Meillon as the town's Mayor and Terry Camelliri as Arthur. I specifically liked Meillon s character. The opening of the film paints him a the benevolent protector but as we learn more, we find out he's one of the worst of the lot. Bruce Spence (The Gyro Captain in the Mad Max films) also has small but thoroughly amazing part in this film as the town loony.

This film is not without its faults however. The slow burn effect has an unfortunate side effect that causes the story to lull for the first half so just be patient. The third act more than makes up for it. I would suggest that you check this film out if you're a fan of Australian New Wave or "Ozploitation" flicks in general. This is a pretty good glimpse of what's to come from the country that would later give way to gems like "Long Weekend", the "Mad Max" trilogy and masterpieces such as "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "Walkabout".

 

Enjoy.

The Criterion Chronicles - The Cremator

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

Karel Kopfrkingl works in a Czechoslovakian crematorium in the late 1930's in this 1969 film by lesser known Czech New Wave director, Juraj Herz. He thinks of himself as a pillar in his community and considers his job and the process of cremation to be cleansing of Earthly suffering. He loves quoting the Tibetan book of the dead during funerals. He reconnects with an old friend that he served with in the first World War who convinces him to assert his supposed Germanic heritage and that his half-Jewish wife, Lakme has been hindering his career.

I've seen quite a few films of the Czech New Wave movement and quite a few of them deal with the German occupation during WWII. I will say that these film, including this one are some of the most fascinating you will ever see. The retrospective viewpoint of the artists of an occupied country 20 to 30 years removed is seen with a very unique attitude. It's akin to watching a group of people open up a time-capsule and commenting on its contents. Keep in mind that most of the filmmakers of this time were only babies during the occupations. I think a lot of this movement was fueled by their drive to rebel against their parent's generation that allowed a nation to be taken over by the most evil force in recent history. I would also suggest Ján Kadár's "The Shop on Main Street" and Jirí Menzel's masterpiece "Closely Watched Trains" for a bit more of what I'm talking about. I think the Czech filmmakers were the first to have the courage to add comedy to these stories.

This film is off putting to say the least. This guy is a complete weirdo and the filmmaking supports the

audience's general feeling of unease and discomfort. Karel is obsessed with death and the macabre alike. He likes to groom himself and sometimes his children with the same comb he uses on the corpses awaiting the furnace. His round smug expression permeates the film with a combination of extreme shallow focus and a plethora of fish-eye lens shots. He also seems to be engrossed with his own strange version of antiseptic cleansing. He believes in the cleansing power of his furnace and of death itself and as such makes it a point to cleanse his own house and crematorium. And he manages to do this with the same indifferent smirk throughout. 

This film and specifically the performance of Rudolf Hrusinsky will get under your skin in the best way possible. I highly suggest it but you may want to keep an episode of your favorite sitcom handy to cleanse your palate  afterwards.... unless you prefer nightmares... You've been warned.

Enjoy.