La vida es silbar

It's all about Cuban fate and how it will bring our three protagonist together. A poetic and surreal piece that lends itself to comedy and melodrama! Perez's directorial influence may have derived from the films of Elisio Subiela and Alexandro Jodorowsky. There are also hints of Fellini with the occasional background sound of that dreamy kind of wind scattering about in our subconscious.

This films shows how political censorship enriches artists' imagination and visual language and the entire narrative needed in cinema. Perez was not able to say IT aloud and therefore he says it with beautiful metaphors. People in film have severe attacks of yawn, lustful fantasies and fainting. These are no signs of fatigue or desire but of things not having space enough to become true in a totalitarian society. There are words and ideas not being said aloud anymore: freedom, love; as also those which struck us like hammer on head: sex, hypocrisy, life-lies. People have their strategies to survive until the day someone says it aloud.

I liked this movie in general. The things I could not understand made it difficult for me to give a precise judgement at the end. It is, like many Cuban movies, full of life. It shows how people there take life so simple and how they are open to each other. It is a movie about the search for happiness and maybe liberty in Cuba. The society was also criticized. It showed that some people cannot hear the word liberty or honesty! In some parts the borders between reality and fantasy vanish which makes it more interesting like a mysterious taxi driver who knows about the destiny of all the people. He is perhaps the destiny itself personified in a nice person. Each one of the three protagonists live in his or her way and tries to find happiness in his (her) way. I am still asking myself about the meaning of the whistle in this movie! Probably it is a symbol of freedom. This movie is nice and worth seeing but is not one of my big favorites in the Latin American cinema.

One has to see carefully this film without loosing any scene. Here the scenes are scattered like a Victor Hugo´s novel, so you must make the links in your mind in order to understand the subtle messages. Elpidio is a Cuban guy, son of a lady called Cuba, so this is the way to say something not about Cuba mother but Cuba country. The plot makes too much emphasis on sex, and when people on the streets listen this word, they fall down. The most interesting scene is when the doctor trying to help an old lady who does not want to listen the word sex, publicly says that double standard should not exist and that everybody should be him or herself. So in these scenes there is a critic to the way of living of several Cuban citizens. The cult Yoruba is also clear how most of the Cubans practise it, being Elpidio an active practiser of this cult. Another aspect shown here is the sexual tourism in Cuba, a foreign lady from unknown country (played excellently by Isabel Santos) falls in love with Elpidio (Luis Alberto García), she had sex with all the erotism of the world with the Cuban guy. The film was very careful not to show the poor state of Havana sites and streets, it only shows the famous Havana Malecon, which is in a very bad conditions. In conclusion, this is a modest Cuban film, probably the director did not want to go beyond certain line to avoid any internal bitter critic.

Reading the other comments on the page and seeing the movie, I enjoyed Life is to Whistle. I saw use of the different words, like "sex" when the girl fainted, meant to be like people weren't using the words in the same way and they weren't using freedom in an everyday sense. When things are forbidden, the characters had a psychological reaction and thus they responded with reflexive actions like fainting or yawning. I think this was the director's commentary. I enjoyed how the three people were represented from the time they were children and how, as they grew up, they had their own separate lives that went on. Julia dedicated herself to being a caregiver, forgetting about herself and her own needs. When Julia brought in her daughter and left her at the orphanage, Elpidio was there and he accepted her as a little sister. Growing up not talking, she would whistle instead. The dancer Mariana wanted a part so badly that she vowed celibacy to God if he gave her a certain part in a dance. This is how she expressed her passion. People in the movie did not use the words "freedom" or "love" and sex was not had because of people's love for each other. People were not used to hearing these words, and it would make them faint when they eventually did. This movie is a typical representation of Cuban cinema because it talks about patriotism and freedom; it shows how poor the country is but that despite the lack of money, they did the best that they could to make their lives their own. There are also undertones of betrayal and how the country betrays its own residents, shown by Elpidio burning the tattoo off of his back. Overall, this movie was not outstanding but it was from the point of view of Latin America and it was speaking to the people of Havana, letting them know that they could have freedom and that "love" and "freedom" need to be brought back into the community.