- Chico and Rita
-
Chico and Rita 
Theatrical release posterDirected by Fernando Trueba
Javier MariscalProduced by Santi Errando
Cristina Huete
Michael Rose
Martin PopeStarring Lenny Mandel
Limara MenesesMusic by Bebo Valdés Studio Isle of Man Film
Magic Light PicturesDistributed by Disney (Spain); CinemaNX Release date(s) 19 November 2010 (United Kingdom)
25 February 2011 (Spain)Running time 94 minutes Country Spain
United KingdomLanguage Spanish
EnglishBudget €10 million[1] Chico and Rita is an animated feature-length film directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. The story of Chico and Rita is set against backdrops of Havana, New York City, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Contents
Synopsis
A gifted songwriter and beautiful singer chase their dreams – and each other – from Havana to New York and Las Vegas. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unite them, but their journey – in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero – brings heartache and torment.
Collaborators
Director Fernando Trueba met designer and artist Javier Mariscal ten years ago when he asked him to create a poster for his Latin jazz documentary Calle 54.[2] So began a collaboration that saw Mariscal design all the artwork for Trueba’s Calle 54 Records, make animated pop promos for the label, and together create a jazz-music restaurant in Madrid. The idea to make an animated feature film emerged out of one of those pop promos, La Negra Tomasa by Cuban musician Compay Segundo.
Mariscal’s younger brother Tono Errando, with a background in music, film and animation, leads the audio-visual side of the multi-disciplinary creative company, and was chosen to collaborate with Trueba and Mariscal.
From the beginning, all three men were excited by the idea of making a film set against the Havana music scene in the late-40s and 50s. “That age is beautiful in design and architecture, so visually it belongs very much to Mariscal’s world,” says Errando.
“And in music it’s a moment that’s fantastic: it’s the moment where Cuban musicians go to New York and join the Anglo Saxon jazz musicians. This fusion changed the music at that time.”
Production
Before drawing the locations in Cuba, Mariscal completed an intense research trip. Although, the economic stagnation of the Castro regime has spared Havana the ravages of rapid development in the past five decades, many of the buildings from that era have suffered from decay. But the film-makers came across a treasure trove when they discovered that the city government of the time had assembled an archive of photographs to help with street repairs. They found pictures of every street corner in Havana from 1949, and despite their efforts to ignore the injustices of that period, still manage to convey the look and mood of the era.
The team also found pictures taken inside the planes ferrying Americans to the party island. Mariscal explained that the planes arriving from New York, Washington and Miami during that period were filled with Cuban musicians entertaining the passengers. They provided lots of information about the Cubans of that era, the clothes, the faces, the streets, billboards, cars, bars, the way they lived, the incredible life of Havana.
Release
The film has been shown at the following festivals and released in the UK and Spain.
- 2010
The film appeared at the following film festivals:
- Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2010[3]
- Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010[4]
- London Spanish Film festival on 6 October 2010[5]
- London Latin American Film Festival in November 2010[6]
- Holland Animation Film Festival in November 2010[7][8]
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributed the film in 100 Spanish theaters on February 25, 2010.[1]
The film had a special screening at the Barbican Centre on 25 September[9] It opened across UK cinemas on 19 November 2010.
- 2011
- Cape Town Design/FilmFest at Design Indaba February 2011[10]
- Miami International Film Festival March 2011[11]
- TYPO Berlin 2011 Design Conference on May 19[12]
- Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (opening gala show) September 2011
Reception
Chico & Rita was broadly praised by critics upon release, gaining a score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.[13] At the 25th Goya Awards, the film won the award in the category for Best Animated Film.[14] It is also nominated in the same category at the 24th European Film Awards, which will be held in Berlin on December 3, 2011.[15]
The BBC's Mark Kermode listed the film fifth in his top five films of 2010.[16]
Philip French called the film "the year's best musical and one of the year's finest animated films" and an "utterly delightful, ... affecting, funny, historically accurate and at times pleasingly erotic story."[17]
Sounds and Colors called the film "a crowning achievement; a mixture of great animation, music and history with a narrative that reads like the simple story of heartbreak that bestows the greatest of love songs"[18]
In March 2011, The Miami Herald said "the film melds dazzling visuals and a wildly infectious score into a simple yet affecting love story" and while the "first 30 minutes of Chico & Rita achieve a giddy high the rest of the movie can never match", "Chico & Rita makes you fall hard for music, as hard as the protagonists fall for each other, and the movie is decent enough to give its lovebirds the tender finale they deserve."[11]
Fotogramas, the oldest and most prestigious film magazine in Spain, gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and praised how its characters were "more human and alive than many real actors".[19]
Variety negatively reviewed the film, calling it "a test, one that gauges whether your love of Cuban jazz can exceed your threshold for lousy animation...[in] an unflattering style, like a children's coloring book with its rudimentary line drawings and stiff, expressionless characters"; the film was "evocative enough of late-'40s Havana, and the sweaty, sensual music of the time."[3]
Music
The film has an original soundtrack by Cuban pianist, bandleader and composer Bebo Valdés. It features music by Thelonious Monk, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie and Freddy Cole.
According to Tono Errando, "it was the moment when new musicians came along like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie with a new kind of music, that is not for dancing, full of notes, played really fast, a music that now we call jazz. Then the Cuban musicians arrived. Dizzy Gillespie has said many times in interviews, there was a moment for him that was very important, it was the moment he first played with Chano Pozo. Pozo was the first percussionist that played in a jazz band."[20]
Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger of the film Bebo Valdés was living in obscurity in Stockholm, when Trueba reintroduced his playing to an international audience with his film Calle 54, and went on to produce the Grammy-winning Lagrimas Negras album, teaming Valdes with flamenco singer Diego “El Cigala”.
Trueba was also able to persuade the real-life flamenco star Estrella Morente, who has been performing since the age of seven, to participate in the film.
Musicians featured in the film include Chucho Valdes, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Chano Pozo, Tito Puente, Ben Webster, and Thelonious Monk.
References
- ^ a b "Disney takes 'Chico and Rita' for Spain". Variety. December 1, 2010. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118028234. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
- ^ Dossier Calle 54 Club. Issuu.com (2010-02-17). Retrieved on 2011-03-11.
- ^ a b "Chico and Rita". Variety. September 10, 2010. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943498/. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
- ^ "2010 Films – Chico & Rita". Toronto International Film Festival. 2010-07-21. http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2010/chicorita. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
- ^ http://www.londonspanishfilmfestival.com/2010_festival/2010_films/chico_y_rita.html[dead link]
- ^ The London Latin American Film Festival, the Best Annual Latin American Film Festival in London celebrates its 20th edition in November 2010. Latinamericanfilmfestival.com. Retrieved on 2011-03-11.
- ^ Winners from the Holland Animation Film Festival website,
- ^ The Holland Animation Film Festival 2010: Chico and Rita steal the show, a 10 November 2010 article from Phaidon Press
- ^ Chico & Rita (15*) – Special Preview. Barbican (2010-09-25). Retrieved on 2011-03-11.
- ^ Filmfest 2011. Design Indaba. Retrieved on 2011-03-11.
- ^ a b "Falling in love in Havana — and all that jazz". The Miami Herald. March 4, 2011. http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/04/2097272/falling-in-love-in-havana-and.html. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
- ^ "Estudio Mariscal and Chico & Rita, an animated movie". TYPO Berlin 2011 SHIFT. May 19, 2011. http://www.typoberlin.de/2011/index.php/Javier+Mariscal;44.55/2. Retrieved 2011-07-09.
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chico_and_rita/ Chico & Rita - Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed 2011-4-10
- ^ http://premiosgoya.academiadecine.com/ganadores/
- ^ http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/the-european-film-awards/nominations/
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad4TwCamU90 Kermode Uncut: My Top Five Films of the Year. Accessed 2011-4-10
- ^ Philip French (21 November 2010). "Chico & Rita – Review". The Observer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/nov/21/chico-and-rita-review. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
- ^ Chico and Rita, a 19 November 2010 review from SoundsandColours.com
- ^ http://www.fotogramas.es/Peliculas/Chico-Rita/Critica
- ^ Fernando Trueba P.C.S.A, Estudio Mariscal S.A, Magic Light Pictures, IOM Limited (3 October 2010). [www.chicoyrita.com/assets/files/prensa/dossier/C&R_pressbook_ENG.pdf "Chico & Rita – Pressbook"]. www.chicoyrita.com. www.chicoyrita.com/assets/files/prensa/dossier/C&R_pressbook_ENG.pdf. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
External links
- Official website (UK)
- Official website (USA)
- Chico and Rita at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview at YouTube between Mark Kermode and director Fernando Trueba at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
- Video review of the film by Mark Kermode, from the BBC
Town Musicians of Bremen (1989) · El regreso del viento del norte (1994) · Megasónicos (1997) · ¡Qué vecinos tan animales! (1998) · Goomer (1999) · La isla del cangrejo (2000) · El bosque animado (2001) · Dragon Hill, la colina del dragón (2002) · El Cid: The Legend (2003) · P3K.Pinocho 3000 (2004) · Midsummer Dream (2005) · El Ratón Pérez (2006) · Nocturna (2007) · The Missing Lynx (2008) · Planet 51 (2009) · Chico and Rita (2010)
1980s Year of Enlightment (1986) · Twisted Obsession (1989)1990s 2000s Calle 54 (2000)2010s Chico and Rita (2010)Categories:- 2010 films
- Spanish films
- British films
- Animated features released by GKIDS
- British animated films
- English-language films
- Films directed by Fernando Trueba
- Films set in Cuba
- Films set in the 1940s
- Jazz films
- Spanish animated films
- Sony Pictures Classics films
- Spanish-language films
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