The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)

John Meillon: Mayor

Photos 

Quotes 

• The Mayor : Have you country boys forgotten the old school war cry? Have you forgotten the meaning of those words? Woomera, Woomera, Babalu, Boomerang, Crocodile, Kookaburra, Wombat, Orangutan, Weehoo, Wayhoo, Terramungamine, Quandong, Billabong, Gundabluey Pine, Platypus, Emu, Wallaby, Roo...

• The Mayor : Let's be blunt, Arthur, you've got two dead men on our conscious. You've also got this - fear of driving, this fear of cars. Do you know, here in Paris hospital, in the Bellevue Ward, we have people who don't even know their own names. Oh, this is true. It happens in hospitals all over the country, all over the world: accident brain dementia. Sometimes they have never got a mark on their bodies. People who can't handle the suffering and the shock. People like you. Not very pleasant, is it? But, that's the world we live in. That's the world of the motor car.

• The Mayor : Now, let this be a warning, a warning to all people, who defy the laws of Paris. Okay mate.

  [has Les' car torched] 

• The Mayor : Max, close the road. No one in or out - until we sort this business out.

• The Mayor : Now, you listen to me. Now, you get this into your mind. Nobody leaves Paris! No one!

• The Mayor : Nobody can go in or out. There is no safe road. Paris, we'll survive! No one will drive until further notice.

• The Mayor : As to our youth, they are idle. They are lazy. The need to work! As that American President said, eh, what was his name? Roosevelt. Roosevelt, yes. The New Deal! Build! They have got to work!

• The Mayor : The early pioneers suffered adversity and they overcame it. It was a tough life! Only the strong survived - and the weak perished.

• The Mayor : The future promises great things - for us! For *our* town! The light is at the end of the tent! But, have you the strength to travel the short distance that remains? I think most of you have.

• The Mayor : Let's hand it over to the young people!

  [laughs]