Marcia Degia - PublisherA double-whammy with the senuous adult feature-animation Chico and
Rita by two co-directors – Oscar winning Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque)
and artist/ designer Javier Mariscal; a deliciously sweet film with
some hardcore latin and American jazz. Expect to hear some excellent set
pieces with classics by the likes of real-life musical icons such as
Valdes, Estrella Morente, and Freddy Cole (the brother Nat King Cole
himself).
The tale starts in 1940s Havana, Cuba; it is the love story between a beautiful aspiring singer, Rita, (Meneses) and piantist Chico (Eman Xor Oña).
They meet, fall in love and form a musical partnership, with passionate
fireworks all along the way. All is going well until an American
businessman makes a once-in-a-lifetime offer to Rita – a career in The
States. Torn between her love for her man and fulfilling her dreams,
loverboy makes it easy for her by copping off with the local ‘bike’. And
so, off she she pops to New York and launches a successful career in
showbiz. Chico is left behind to lick his wounds (or at least the floozy
he ended up with on that fateful night).
As you would expect with the blues, this is a tragic lovestory – with
a light of hope by its end. Despite a fairly clichéd narrative which
touches only lightly on racial discrimination and the impending Cuban
Revolution (and perhaps rightly so) , the film does not fail to hit all the right notes. Stylish, hypnotic and downright sexy.
