Chico & Rita

• Director: Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando
• Screenwriter/Written By: Fernando Trueba, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón
• Producer: Cristina Huete, Martin Pope & Michael Rose, Santi Errando
• Starring: Limara Meneses and Mario Guerra, Voices of Eman Xor Oña
• Running Time: 94 mins.
• Language: Spanish w/English subtitles
• Rating: Not Rated

Fernando Trueba is a multi-award-winning writer, director and producer, with a long career in film, television, documentaries, theater and music. He won an Oscar in 1993 for Best Foreign Language Film with “Belle Epoque” starring Penelope Cruz. For Chico & Rita, Trueba teamed up with long time friend and collaborator Javier Mariscal. Mariscal is an artist and designer, who has worked in multiple fields including illustration, graphics, comic books, paintings, animation, interiors, product design, furniture and web design.

Chico & Rita is an animated love story that starts out in pre Castro Cuba in 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams of becoming a world class jazz musician, but his dreams aren’t fully recognized until he meets a beautiful singer named Rita. They unite through their passion for music and their romantic desires begin to blossom. Eventually Rita’s talent is discovered by an American producer who proposes to make her a star in New York. Chico believes Rita’s intentions are to run off with the American to New York. He foolishly breaks her heart and out of distress Rita accepts the American’s offer to go to New York. After some time, Chico and his friend and aspiring agent Ramon make their way to the Big Apple to pursue their dreams in the music and entertainment business.

Chico & Rita’s journey to success and love comes at a heavy price and brings them both heartache and anguish and takes them from Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas. Chico’s love for music and his desire for Rita eventually lands him a tour with one of his idols Dizzy Gillespie and some of the biggest names in jazz during the early 1950s. Rita’s beauty helps propel her into stardom but along with her new success comes the age old tradition of segregation and discrimination; a tradition that many great and historic African American musicians and entertainers also dealt with during that time.

What you might really love about this film is how the animation generally sets the backdrop for the story, and allows it to be the most prominent aspect of the film.  It”s extremely refreshing and thoughtful that the creators didn’t let the film deviate from story or get lost in technical animated effects. Chico and Rita is a classic love story of boy meets girl while celebrating the vibrant, rich and colorful culture of Cuba and the influence of Afro Cuban music on American jazz musicians. It also features music from several great jazz legends like Thelonious Monk, Cole Porter, Jimmy Heath, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. The original score is composed and performed by the great Cuban jazz pianist Bebo Valdés.  You don’t have to be a jazz or Latin jazz enthusiast to enjoy this film but if you are, you should find Chico & Rita very entertaining and enlightening.