Chico & Rita

Plot synopsis:
In present-day Havana, Chico, a shoe-shiner, tunes his radio to the Radio Progreso station, which is playing old Cuban hits on a program called Melodies from Yesterday. As he listens, the station begins to play a romantic arrangement of A Taste of Me (Sabor a Mí) by Mexican composer Álvaro Carrillo (1921–69) which causes him to remember his life back in 1940s Cuba. In 1948 Havana, Chico and his best friend Ramón are struggling dandies in a low-life bar. Ramon arranges a double date for the both of them with two American tourists. They take the women to a bar where Chico falls in love with the band's beautiful lead singer, Rita. Chico attempts to talk to her, but an American tourist refuses to let Rita leave him.
Chico and Ramón go to the Tropicana Club with their lady-friends, and sneak in through the performer's entrance. While walking around, Chico sees upon Rita and her gentleman friend arguing. The Maitre d' overhears that Chico is an accomplished pianist and persuades him to substitute for the main event's missing pianist. Chico fills in, playing at first sight a new piece—Ebony Concerto by Igor Stravinsky. Chico, initially nervous, ends up performing the piece with aplomb, to the delight of the band. Rita finally agrees to ditch her date and flee with Chico on Ramón's motorcycle and sidecar, along with the Americans.
After a dangerous chase, the American man finally crashes into a car dealership, and the others escape. Rita and Chico leave the rest of the party and go to a bar where Chico introduces her to bebop music, which she takes up quickly. Afterwards they go to Chico's place and spend the rest of the night together. The next day Rita wakes up to find Chico playing a new composition on the piano, which he names "Rita". As they play and kiss, Juana, Chico's former girlfriend, walks in and picks a fight with Rita. The two women angrily leave Chico, feeling betrayed. However, Chico is still smitten with Rita and begs Ramon to convince her to perform with him for an upcoming radio contest. Ramon pays Rita to sing with Chico but after the contest, Rita leaves Chico without speaking to him. He follows her to the house of a santera, who predicts that Chico will cause her much suffering.
That night, the station announces that Chico and Rita have won a month's engagement at the Hotel Nacional. A few weeks later, Chico and Rita are having great success in their performances. Rita's beauty mesmerizes all the men, which ignites Chico's jealousy. One of the admirers, Ron, asks Rita to his table to discuss business. He offers to take Rita to New York City to make her a star, where jazz and Latin music are a burgeoning scene. However, Rita insists that the offer must include Chico. Meanwhile, Chico has been watching from a distance and becomes jealous, believing Rita wishes to leave him for Ron. Rita attempts to explain that she is fighting for both of them to go to New York together, but Chico storms off. Rita goes to his apartment and waits for Chico, but falls asleep in the courtyard. She is awakened by Chico stumbling home with Juana. Hurt, Rita agrees to go to New York with Ron, alone.
After her departure, Chico becomes depressed and he and Ramon eventually secure the means to go to New York to seek their fortunes as well. Chico and Ramón give Chano Pozo a letter of recommendation they received from his sister in Cuba. Chano is receptive and excited to meet fellow Cubans. However, he is involved in drugs and has a short temper. After discovering he was sold oregano instead of marijuana, Chano attacks the dealer, who later finds him in a bar and kills him. Chico finds work as a party musician, and Ramón as an usher at the Plaza Hotel. At one of his party gigs, Chico runs into a successful Rita again, who is hurt by the racist doubts of her fellow party goers about her upcoming film project.
Chico and Rita run away in her new car and spend the night together again. The next day, Ron locates Ramón and proposes a deal to finance his artist-agency business, as long as Ramon finds jobs to keep Chico away from Rita. Ramón complies with his end of the bargain and signs Chico with Dizzy Gillespie, who gives him a gig in Paris and a European tour. Rita becomes a big film star while Chico finds a new girlfriend in Paris. One morning, while playing "Rita" at the piano, the girlfriend's dog, Lily, comes in and sits by Chico. He decides to change the name of the song to "Lily". Back in New York, despite her wealth and success, Rita is still mistreated socially due to her skin color. While being driven to a set, the radio plays a new Jazz hit that she instantly recognizes as the piece Chico composed for her. She is moved to tears when she learns Chico renamed the song. In New York, Rita goes into a bar and sees Chico playing "Lily".
She waits for him outside the bar and demands to know who Lilly is. He teases her about the mystery female's identity, but finally reveals that he renamed the song after a dog. The two passionately kiss and make up. A paparazzo captures the kiss in a photograph that appears in the newspapers. Chico and Rita agree to marry that New Year's Eve, after Rita's debut in Las Vegas. Chico tells Ramón, who worries that their reunion will ruin his business. Ramón slips a packet of drugs into Chico's coat, which police discover during a search after a raid on his gig at the Palladium in New York. They arrest Chico, and won't let him make a phone call to Rita, who waits in vain in a Las Vegas motel. Chico is soon deported back to Cuba. Upset, Rita becomes drunk before her New Year's Eve performance, believing that Chico left her again. Despite Ron's urging to not "spoil it all now", Rita deliberately sabotages her career by denouncing the racism of the Hollywood industry and the hypocrisy of being a celebrated black artist.
Meanwhile, Chico enters Cuba right at the beginning of Castro's regime, and the new Cuban revolutionary authorities seize his passport. All venues are now forbidden to play jazz because it is "capitalist music." Disappointed with life, Chico gives up music altogether.
Sixty years later, when Chico is shining shoes for a tourist, a young man rushes to him and tells him that a famous young singer and her entourage are eagerly asking for him and his jazz music. He reluctantly agrees to meet them and for the first time in years he plays his music for an audience. The singer asks him to record a song with her and Chico agrees. It becomes a big hit and takes him on a world tour, giving him success for the second time. After the tour, Chico is allowed re-entry into the United States. He searches for Rita, starting in New York. He eventually finds Ron in a nursing home and discovers that his friend Ramón has died and learns Rita is in Las Vegas. He goes there and knocks on her door and she reveals that she has stayed for 47 years in the same motel room, working as the motel's housekeeper and waiting for him. The film ends with their reunion.

Tags: romantic, flashback

Review:
Chico & Rita follows Chico, an old and retired Cuban pianist, as he remembers his impossible love with a jazz singer called Rita and his rise and fall as a music performer.
Its animation is as nothing you have seen before and the cinematography, the lights, the angles, the music, just everything related to the technical aspect of this film is absolutely perfect.But what's best and most refreshing about this film is its old-fashioned love story.
Following a bolero-like structure, the main characters fall in love as easily as they fall apart, but they never forget each other, having an outdated loyalty that is deserving of such all-time classics as Casablanca or Gone With The Wind, and ending in the brilliant and moving bittersweet final scene.Jazz music plays a main role in the film and gets to be the third character in what we could call a love triangle between the jazz, Chico and Rita.
Real jazz performers, such as Charlie Parker or Tito Puente get enjoyable cameos in the film and, practically, all the performances in the film are very delightful and entertaining.Although the film has some minor elements that prevents it from being a masterpiece, like the appearance near the end of Estrella Morente, they are so insignificant compared to the whole of the film that Chico & Rita is still an exceptional film appealing to an extremely large audience.Chico & Rita is an animated old-fashioned musical romance with a highly original aesthetic, a both refreshing and outdated love story and sublime original and adapted music.Rating: 4.5/5..
The new animated romance Chico and Rita follows the relationship of two young Cuban musicians: Chico is a gifted piano player looking to bring the sound of Havana to New York; Rita is a beautiful singer who treads the precarious path between Latin musicians and white investors looking to cash in on the popularity of this new music.
Like all star crossed lovers, their journey is not an easy one – their musical and romantic tribulations will continue over 60 years against the striking backdrops of Havana, New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas.The real strength of the film is its ability to portray a classic love story in both an innovative, sensual and sensitive way.
The syncopated grace of Cuban Jazz combines with a disarmingly child-like animation to create a sparkling tribute to 1940s and 50s Havana culture.The film exudes real passion for both the music of the period and the locations of the film, beautifully re-crafted within the animated landscape.
Chico and Rita is a delicate reminder that genuine action and emotion can still be expressed without the pixellated glossiness of CGI.Chico and Rita really succeeds in bringing the colour and vibrancy of early 50s Havana back to life – from the delightfully evocative soundtrack, to the re-telling of a classic love story through the medium of hand-drawn animation, the film is a fitting expression of the vision and compassion of its creators.Find more reviews at www.singleadmission.co.uk.
Set in Cuba just before and the years after the revolution, it tells the story of Chico, a talented jazz pianist and Rita, a beautiful singer.
Through the story of this couple's turbulent love affair over these years, where Rita finds fame and fortune in US and Chico goes through some hard times, we also get a brief history of both Cuba and jazz music.
The animation is wonderfully evocative and colorful and as for the music; well if you are a fan of jazz or Latin American music you are going to fall in love with this movie.
Check out my review and you'll see I think it deserves its spot.Having just screened "Chico & Rita," I can tell you that the Academy did right by this film as well.
It's a journey worth taking."Chico & Rita" has a unique look, with vibrant colors that compliment a terrific soundtrack of jazz greats.
The voice work is spot-on, and the voice artists have the advantage of having a solid - though, to be honest, a wee bit clichéd - story to tell about adults for adults.I hesitate to write that, as the first thing that comes to mind when you link "adult" and "animation" is Ralph Bakshi / "Fritz the Cat." This film does have sexual content, but it is not exploitative in any way.
Chico and Rita is a nice little film with some great music, animation that really brings out all of the vivid colors, and atmosphere that takes you into it's setting.
As a big animation fan, I loved Chico and Rita, one of the most beautiful and most unique films I have seen recently.
Chico and Rita is a very musically rich film as well, with Cuban and Jazz music providing so much character to the atmosphere.
This just simply is a great movie, that deserves to be seen by more.This in short is a surprisingly good animated movie, with a sweet little story in at and a great overall style and atmosphere to it!8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
As well there are several other CGI techniques that aren't as familiar to me: gauzy curtains with an embroidered pattern wafting in the breeze; shafts of light with an identifiable source and a direction illuminating not only themselves but also bits of the dark places where they fall; dynamic shadows that change as characters move; lighted signs whose parts change from "on" to "off" and back to "on" at different times.But on closer examination it doesn't feel like it's really just plain old traditional 2D hand drawn cel animation after all.
Also, it sounds as if (I'm not certain) the live action film was _automatically_ rotoscoped by the computer and became the "first rough draft" (the "animatic").Although neither outlines nor still characters visibly keep moving, the characters have a little bit of the "dizzy" feel of something done with Bob Sabiston's "Rotoshop" that practically defined avant-garde animation a decade ago (backgrounds are rock solid though).
After all, if it's got a crummy story, no amount of fancy animation will save it.That's part of what's good about the Academy Award-nominated "Chico and Rita".
The film is a familiar tale of lovers that just keep getting separated either by their own mistakes or by events they can't control, but set in the beautiful and refreshing backdrop of Havana (and later in New York, and Los Angeles), with Afro-Cubans as leads.
Chico Y Rita is an animation that could possibly be a film in live-action.
It is the threshold of the film with real and animation actors, because he can talk to the reference of reality produced in animation, avoiding the use of larger costumes in the execution of movements without falling into sentimentality to be a cold copy of reality - the use of subtle and comfortable camera movements used throughout the film explore the beautiful panoramic and subjectives of the characters, making intense plans as when Chico and Rita go to bed.
The animation is the romance between Chico, a pianist, and singer Rita, in the beautiful and attractive Havana of the 1940s The film revolves around separations and encounters the characters dive between artificial betrayals and music, doing stand the story going through the same physical distance, at times, keeps them apart.
The work Mariscal art direction in Chico y Rita is flawless and elegant, creating meetings before consecrated - Hollywood movie and Latin jazz - through minute documentary studies of Cuban culture of the 1940s, in graphics and colors, developing human characters and deep in scenarios, use of lighting and subjective points of view, in black and white, could possibly result in a noir film - except his account not be primarily associated with a thriller.
The characters are fascinating and the music lends a great deal of thematic significance and atmosphere to this tale of star crossed love.It's movies like this which should win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.
CHICO & RITA is a notable achievement - an animated love-story that makes some trenchant points about the ways in which human beings were constrained during the Forties and Fifties.In the tradition of the Spanish bolero, the main plot is a picaresque tale focusing on how Chico (voiced by Eman Xor Oña) and Rita (Limara Meneses) encounter one another at a nightclub, fall in love, and then keep falling out of love until they are finally separated in New York.
The animated film Chico and Rita is a wonder to take in.
With a wonderful love story, and deceptively simple, but stunning animation, this is without a doubt one of my favorite films of 2010.Set in late 40s pre-Revolution Cuba and early 50s New York it captures through a languid sensuality the bebop era as many have tried and few have managed.
Only the good Mambo Kings and Tarvenier's Around Midnight compares, here the sense of joy and heartbreak and rhythm is amazing.The film captures so fully what the era feels like - the detailing is outstanding from the architecture to the hip swaying it's just captivating.Above all it's a timeless film about love: love for Cuba, love for Jazz, and love between its two protagonists: the pianist Chico and the beautiful Rita - honestly, films like this come along maybe once a year - it's a bittersweet film that combines music, love, and great artistry into one beautiful package..
Here is a great animated film for adults, particularly for those who enjoy or are intrigued by Afro-Cuban music that after being extremely popular in the 1940s and 1950s faded once the Cuban revolution established a Marxism regime.Inspired by stories of exile and the music left behind, this is an epic tale of star-crossed lovers, a singer and a pianist/songwriter, whose tempestuous relationship takes from Havana to NYC, from Europe to Vegas, from the 1950s to the 2000s, the film is meticulous in its recreation of streets, bars, apartments, hotels, cars, music halls, clubs, populated by its colorful characters.
This attention to detail make this animated feature true to life making the characters and their stories believable and real, unlike the silly cartoonish CGI of the Toy Story series and the contemporary deluge of animated crap polluting the screens.Then there is the soundtrack: Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Woody Herman, among others along with the Afro Cuban piano of Bebo Valdes, etc.
Chico and Rita has some observable limitations: simple animation techniques, voice acting and a slow pace which is more suited for a documentary-style film making, that can only be accompanied by simplistic storyline and characters that cannot be shown to be too multi-dimensional in order to be supported by the limitations mentioned.Due to that, it could have been given just a 6 star rating.
Now, of course, it's a play with scenery-chewing emotion and lines like, "I had to kiss you again!" and "For 47 years I've been waiting for you to walk through that door!"The Oscar-nominated Chico and Rita is both of these things, but it works so well because the music of Bebo Valdés is seamlessly woven through the story.
For lovers of classic musical traditions, it is a joy to hear.In addition to the thematic music Bebo wrote for the film, the sound track features songs ranging from the Cuban night club acts of the 1940's-50's (featuring Mexican pop classics like "Besame Mucho" and "Sabor a Mi") to the Latin-Bop (Cubop) fusion of New York, with cameo "appearances" by Woody Herman, Charlie Parker, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Ben Webster, Nat Cole, Chano Pozo, and Thelonius Monk.
Hard to put 'Chico & Rita' is an a category and this is a testimony of the fact that animated movies, even those that are created in the 'classical' 2-D format like this one transcend nowadays genres and express more and more different emotions and messages.
'Chico & Rita' is a musical (with wonderful Cuban and jazz music), a melodrama, and a political film.
All packaged in a beautiful and colorful wrapping which makes it a pleasure to watch and listen to.I should say that the animation is not the best side of the film, and probably stills look better than the movie itself.
The torrid love story between the pianist Chico and the singer Rita, which starts in the Cuba of the last decade before the Communist take-over and continues tracking them while they try to make their way in the US of the 50s may be loosely based on the characters of two real time musicians (Bebo Valdes who actually wrote the original music in the film and Rita Montaner who was the star of the Tropicana club in Havana and then had a short but spectacular career in the US).
As there, at some point in time I lost the difference between film with actors and animation and I completely immersed in the story (and the music in this case).
I loved the animation and the music, but I just couldn't get into it, the story just wasn't engaging; I actually had to skip - I rented it on DVD (just as well I did and didn't buy it or something) - to the end.
Chico and Rita, which unexpectedly grabbed a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars this same year, is an experience that pleases and pampers with seduction and effervescent charm throughout its entire runtime.
Equipped with a wonderful soundtrack of jazz music and some of the most lush animation I've seen since probably, My Dog Tulip or The Triplets of Belleville in terms of beauty and unique surrealism, it is arguably one of the most jivey and adult animated pictures in the last few years.Let's start with the animation, which is the film's most redeeming quality.
Everything is colored nicely, fleshed out astonishingly, and overall, easy on the eyes and dreamlike.The film begins with the title character, Chico, who hears a romantic ballad that transports him and us back to Cuba in 1948, where jazz music was brewing in the hearts, clubs, and radios of many.
We see how Chico met and fell in love with a woman named Rita early, but different backgrounds, aspirations, and the ugly side of show business kept elbowing them further away from each other and their relationship often went from soothing and melodic to hopeless and grim.The jazz music perfectly compliments the tonal environment the picture brings to us, in a heavenly, seductive form.
Like the earlier reviewer, once I saw on the DVD box that "Chico and Rita" featured the music of Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, Theolonius Monk and Charlie Parker- in addition to the Cuban music!- I knew I had to see the film.
As Chico and Ramon search for success in New York clubs and Rita becomes a Broadway and Hollywood sensation real life stars Chano Pozo and Tito Puente make appearances.
The animation isn't afraid either to be frank and adult: a fight between Rita and Chico's old girlfriend doesn't show them pulling their punches.One of the movie's highlights is a fantastic dream sequence that salutes the musicals of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
As far as animation goes I can take or leave the entries that have appeared over the last few years but once I read that the soundtrack of Chico and Rita featured the likes of Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, Theolonius Monk and Charly Parker I decided to check it out.
The music was infectious and the first thing I did after the film ended was to buy the soundtrack.The story was touching, yet I felt it was lacking a little.
The relationship never really happened and therefore, I couldn't see why Rita would have waited a lifetime for Chico when all they did was argue and fall out.Saying this however, I did enjoy the film and would love to see a few more animations made in this way..
As you may or may not know, "Chico & Rita" was nominated for Best Animated Feature for 2012--losing to the much more commercial "Puss 'n Boots".
It's a small-time production with a very unique independent feel.The film is set mostly in 1940s Cuba (but also in the US and Paris) and is the story of two folks, Chico and Rita and their very tumultuous relationship as they work their way up through the music business.
While I liked how unique the film was in style and content, I didn't care much for the story or the characters.
In many ways, it's an ordinary love story, but it's beautifully told: Even when the character's designs are pretty stylish (Even if not everyone like the aesthetic of those designs, personally I think that were done well) The sceneries and the voice acting were quite good too, but the best element from the movie is the excellent music that appears on the film, giving it a whimsical, almost dream-like atmosphere.
Even the cheesiest part of the story ended being effective due the combination of that beautiful music with the stylish animation.On the bad side, the plot is somewhat slow and even boring at some parts of the story that could have been done better (Or just being obviated, since those parts didn't add major interest to the main storyline) Too be honest, I was expecting a bit more from this movie, but even when "Chico & Rita" isn't the great masterpiece that it could have been, it is certainly a highly enjoyable animated movie for adults, that handles very well all the subtle elements from every good love-story..
To wait for Chico apparently (Rita doesn't really DO anything in the movie, things happen to her mostly).In the end, I did enjoy this movie, despite its flaws with character and story.
This Academy Award nominated animated film, "Chico & Rita" most definitely fits within that definition..
Add to the visual style a rich blend of music, the story becomes more than a tragic romance but rather a satisfying musical that features animated Woody Herman and Dizzy Gillespie to give it cred.Chico & Rita complements other Oscar nominated films of 2011 such as Hugo, Midnight in Paris, and The Artist, all a variation of Hollywood's love of its past.