‘Heat Wave’: A 1964 Film About the Complexity of Political & Romantic Relationships
Heat waves are no laughing matter. But two famous Polish cabaret stars Jeremi Przybora and Jerzy Wasowski thought otherwise. Their 1964 black and white film 'Upał' (Heat Wave) was soaked in absurdity. Despite its satirical premise, the film brought valuable insights, as it scorched the political response to climate change.
The main characters in Heat Wave are played by Jeremi Przybora and Jerzy Wasowski. They reprise their characters from their cabaret act, Kabaret Starszych Panów (Older Gentlemen’s Cabaret) created for a TV show of the same name that aired from 1958 to 1966. The two men appeared in each episode, dressed identically in formal attire and a stovepipe hat.
Heat Wave starts with the two actors reprising their roles as older gentlemen receiving a visit from the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister and his friends decide to leave the city since they are overworked and there’s a heat wave. The Prime Minister asks the older gentlemen to take charge of the city because they live in the centre of it – and they accept. The film does not show the Prime Minister’s face, suggesting that abandonment of government and responsibility is a timeless issue not tied to any single politician.
The older gentlemen venture outside and are exposed to the escapades of several inhabitants. The older gentlemen are in the city’s centre but don’t fully comprehend what happens around them. They encounter Barbara, the owner of a milk bar; Cornell, the owner of a clothing store; Ms. Grzanka, a model who carries around a trophy; an ambassador from a different country; Albin, a street performer; and a brigade of nurses from London who come to treat people suffering from the heat wave.
Heat Wave uncovers the complexity of both political and romantic relationships. The heat brings out the true character of several inhabitants. The political atmosphere is difficult when an ambassador of an unnamed superpower visits the city, incensed that he is not greeted upon his arrival. The ambassador decides to file a formal complaint with the visiting government’s ministry, and his hot temper does not cool when he’s told by the older gentlemen that his neglected arrival occurred during a heat wave.
Diplomacy is restored when the ambassador decides to retract his formal complaint from the ministry office. The ambassador does this after the older gentlemen stop the ‘protestors’ who are outside his residence protesting his formal complaint. These protestors are in reality gawking men who want to see Ms. Grzanka, who is a guest at the ambassador’s party. The older gentlemen call the nurses, who proceed to stop the protestors by knocking them out with their heels. The ambassador then accompanies the older gentlemen to the ministry office. One of the older gentlemen distracts the security guard patrolling the exterior of the building, and the ambassador uses the other older gentleman as a stool to help propel him into the building. The ambassador retracts his note of complaint. He has now been made cognizant of his unworldly ego.
Romantic relationships also form and sizzle in Heat Wave. While Cornell fails to win Barbara’s love, Barbara fails to make Albin love her back. Albin only covets the ambassador’s guitar, which he steals at the ambassador’s party. The stolen guitar leads to the ambassador’s assistant taking part in a fencing match with Albin in order to retrieve the guitar. After Barbara physically removes Albin from the duel, the ambassador tries to insert himself into Barbara’s life. Barbara realizes that Albin only covets the ambassador’s guitar, and she acquires it from the ambassador and gives it to Albin. In the end, Barbara ends up alone and accepts her place as second fiddle to Albin’s guitar.
In another plot line, Ms. Grzanka fights back against a wave of inappropriate amorous advances. She is followed around the city by a crowd of gawking men, who follow her all the way to the beach. Because of the heat wave, however, the gawking men collapse. The nurses don’t cure the men’s lustful proclivities, as they merely flip them over onto their stomachs. The model meets Cornell, another depressed person, at the beach; Cornell laments his failed proposal to Barbara, while Ms. Grzanka detests how people only see her appearance; their dry, famished souls fill with each other’s presence. They kiss; the rain comes, ending the heat wave.
Heat Wave concludes when the Prime Minister returns to the city. The older gentlemen tell the leader who has returned that everything went well in their absence; the Prime Minister leaves, believing in their glaring lie and lacking any remorse for abandoning their city during a crisis.
Beyond the comical nature of its plot lines and action, Heat Wave’s absurdity offers a more serious argument, as it shows another side of the relationship between government and climate change. It is not an all-encompassing satire of the climate crisis, like Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. We can see, more than half a century later, from the vantage point of today, how it delivers a message about leadership amidst crisis and climate change. In the film, the older gentlemen remain clueless, as they overcame the heat wave purely by chance. Power did not suddenly give them the knowledge to solve the heat wave. Humanity won’t rise above any of its problems, whether silly or severe, and the movie points to how societal problems don’t only belong to leaders, as all must accept their personal responsibility to rise to meet the most important, most uncomfortable challenges.
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