Comparative Analysis – Lantana (2001) & The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)

It is interesting to see two timely distant films, Lantana (2001) and The Cars that Ate Paris (1974), seem to have several conceptual similarities. Despite the fact that they are both defined as an art-house film at local video stores, their stories entail completely different moods to navigate the audience throughout the films. The conceptual similarities between the two could be categorized into three; suburbia Australia and connection with/separation from the land.

Lantana revolves around the emotional journeys four couples (one of which is divorced) in the suburbia Australia experience, triggered by an accidental disappearance and death of the wife (Valerie) of one of the couples. The characters, especially the protagonist Leon, learn to take a step forward from their midlife crisis as their lives somehow intertwine with one another. It is in this ordinary looking environment surrounded by the nature and lantana bush in particular, that we find a combination of extraordinary events gathering together. The opening scene denotes the whole film very precisely; the film opens with a scenery of bright green leaves decorated beautifully by the colorful flowers and as the camera sinks into the bush, we reach into the dense vines to find a dead body of a woman. This extreme contrast between the beauty of the nature and cruelty of human beings is the exact definition of the suburbia in the context of this film, which involves immoral affair, murder of Valerie’s daughter, Valerie’s success as an author of her book about her daughter and her failing sexless marital state, lonely divorcee who seeks attention from any male in her gaze and so on.

The Cars that Ate Paris, on the other hand, is set within a town called ‘Paris’ in rural Australia though the village more or less looks like a suburbia. The two brothers looking for a job are driving through a rough rocky road, when the older brother finds a sign that points to ‘Paris’ with employment opportunities. The two follow the navigation and are tricked by blinding lights to fall off the cliff. The older brother dies but the younger survives and is taken care of at the town. The town relies predominately on these tricked and killed incoming tourists as their source of income and things. The naïve younger brother, Arthur, appreciates the people’s support and believes his diagnosis as having two dead men in his mind and excessive fear of driving. This seemingly peaceful town as a whole is in fact involved with the business of tourist killing and, like lantana, the protagonist overcomes his complex after successfully escaping from ‘Paris’.

Talking about connection with/separation form the land, both the incidents occur within and because of the bush, and both the protagonists gain a superior understanding of the self in the end of the film; Leon rediscovers the importance of his wife after seeing how depressed Valerie’s husband was to lose both his daughter and wife, while Arthur defeats his fear of driving and achieves the escape without the hands of his older brother who supposedly hated him. It seems that the characters are once defeated by the overwhelming power of the nature, whether directly or indirectly, by getting in touch with the land and in return of conformation to the power of the nature, are given a reward – Leon reconciles with his wife and Arthur is freed from the deceptive town.

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