Chico & Rita

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Movie
Original title Chico & Rita
Country of production Spain ,
United Kingdom
original language Spanish ,
English
Publishing year 2010
length 93 minutes
Rod
Director Fernando Trueba ,
Javier Mariscal ,
Tono Errando
script Fernando Trueba ,
Ignacio Martínez de Pisón
production Santi Errando,
Cristina Huete,
Michael Rose,
Martin Pope
music Bebo Valdés ,
Fernando Trueba
cut Arnau Quiles
synchronization
chronology

←  Predecessor
Buried - buried alive

Successor  →
Blancanieves

Chico & Rita is an animation film by the Spanish directors Fernando Trueba , Javier Mariscal and Tono Errando from 2010. The story of Chico & Rita is about an aging Cuban jazz pianist who happened to be on the radio with a song he composed himself over 60 years ago hears the love of his life sung: Rita Martínez. The memories are set against the backdrop of Havana , New York City , Las Vegas , Hollywood and Paris of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The film opened in German cinemas on August 30, 2012.

action

The aging jazz pianist Chico Valdés now earns his living as a shoe cleaner in Havana . One day he happened to hear the song he composed himself over 60 years ago on the radio, sung by the love of his life: Rita Martínez. Chico remembers meeting the gorgeous Rita in Havana in 1948 as a talented young composer looking for a singer. Since Chico is not only impressed by her extraordinary voice, an affair quickly develops, but it ends just as quickly after his friend Juanita interferes. Music and the longing for love unite them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin American ballad, the bolero - always brings sorrow and suffering. A little later, Rita is approached by a wealthy American businessman who offers her a contract. First she insists that she only wants to be hired together with Chico, who is not named in the contract. But Chico, who had been watching the negotiations from the bar, didn't notice, gets drunk and retires in anger. Rita waits in front of his door and has to watch as Chico is accompanied home by Juanita. Rita leaves Cuba with a heavy heart to pursue a career in New York. Chico follows her, accompanied by his friend and manager Ramón. The two meet the most famous jazz musicians of the era, who all perform in New York, including the conga player Chano Pozo, who is shot by him after an argument with a dealer. This part of the story is based on an actual event. Chico and Rita's paths cross again and again. Rita has now become a successful Hollywood star. When love has finally found its way and both are planning to get married in Las Vegas, Ramón sees his career in jeopardy because he is dependent on the American businessman and official partner of Rita. During a raid on a nightclub, Ramón smuggles drugs into Chico's jacket. Chico is deported from the USA to Cuba, where the revolution has now taken place. His passport will be withheld upon entry. Back in the present, Chico is rediscovered by young American musicians who are passionate fans and are recording a new album with him. After many years, Chico touches a piano again and celebrates a successful tour with many prizes. With the relaunch of his career, it is now finally possible for him to return to the United States and look for Rita. In Las Vegas he finds her in a motel, where she has got by cleaning up. She had always waited for him.

Emergence

Director Fernando Trueba met designer and artist Javier Mariscal when he asked him to create a poster for his Latin jazz documentary Calle 54 (2000). This is how the collaboration began, which, in addition to the artwork for Calle 54, later also resulted in a jazz music restaurant in Madrid . The idea of ​​making a full-length animated film came about when Trueba was visiting Mariscal's studio, the Estudio Mariscal , and was watching his music video for La Negra Tomasa by the Cuban musician Compay Segundo . Mariscal's brother Tono Errando, who heads the audiovisual department at Estudio Mariscal, was called in to collaborate. All three were thrilled from the start by the idea of ​​making a film about the Havana music scene in the late 1940s and 1950s, an era when many Cuban musicians went to New York and worked with American jazz musicians.

production

Before Mariscal drew the scenes in Cuba , he went there on a research trip lasting several weeks. Although the economic standstill under the conditions of the Castro regime and the ongoing US embargo has spared Havana from the devastating effects of uncontrolled development in recent decades, many buildings from the time shown in the film showed signs of decay. But the filmmakers came across a treasure trove when they discovered that the city council had previously put together a photo archive to be used for road repairs. So they found pictures of all the street corners of Havana from 1949. The team also found pictures that were taken inside airplanes that were carrying Americans to the then party island . Mariscal thinks that the flights from New York , Washington and Miami were accompanied by Cuban musicians at the time, who entertained the passengers. The filmmakers received a lot of information about the Cuba of that era, about the clothes, the faces, the streets, billboards, cars, bars and the lifestyle.

music

Errando says of the moment of development in jazz music covered in the film that “it was the moment when new musicians emerged, like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie , with a new kind of non-dance music, full of notes, that is played quickly: a music that we call jazz today. Dizzy Gillespie often said in interviews that there was a very important moment for him, the moment he played with Chano Pozo for the first time. Pozo was the first percussionist to play in a jazz band ”.

The Cuban pianist, bandleader and composer Bebo Valdés is responsible for the film's soundtrack, which includes music by Thelonious Monk , Cole Porter , Dizzy Gillespie and Freddy Cole . Valdés lived in seclusion in Stockholm before his music was re-introduced to an international audience in Trueba's film Calle 54 and Trueba later produced the Grammy-winning album Lagrimas Negras, for which he brought Valdés together with flamenco singer Diego "El Cigala".

Trueba was also able to convince the flamenco star Estrella Morente to take part in the film. In the course of the film, she invites the now old and withdrawn musician Chico to record his song "Rita's Song" with her.

Other well-known musicians portrayed in the film include Chucho Valdés , Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie Parker , Chano Pozo , Tito Puente , Ben Webster and Thelonious Monk . Mariscal says that when recording the soundtrack, the studio musicians mimicked their role models and thus acted as “musical actors”. Jimmy Heath should play like Ben Webster, or Mike Mossman like Dizzy Gillespie.

synchronization

The synchronous work took place at Cinephon Filmproduktions GmbH in Berlin . Cornelius Frommann wrote the dialogue book and directed the dialogue.

role Singers and musicians Original speaker German speaker
Chico Valdés Bebo Valdés Emar Xor Oño Alexander Doering
Rita Martínez (Rita La Belle) Idania Valdés Limara Meneses Nadine Leopold
Ramón / Mario Guerra Martin Kautz
Estrella Morente Estrella Morente
Nat King Cole Freddy Cole
Ben Webster Jimmy Heath
Miguelito Valdés Pedrito Martinez
Dizzie Gillespie Michael Phillip Mossman
Tito Puente Amadito Valdés
Charlie Parker Germán Velazco
Chano Pozo Yaroldi Abreu Oliver Stritzel
Chico (Celia) Rolando Luna
Ron / Lenny Almond Matthias Klie
Juana / Britta Steffenhagen

Awards

European Film Award 2011

Trickfilmfestival Stuttgart 2011

  • Best animated film in the AniMovie category

Academy Awards 2012

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dossier Calle 54 Club . Issuu.com (February 17, 2010), accessed on September 20, 2011
  2. ↑ Chico & Rita - Pressbook ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB), Fernando Trueba PCSA, Estudio Mariscal SA, Magic Light Pictures, IOM Limited (October 3, 2010), accessed on September 20, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chicoyrita.com
  3. ↑ TYPO Berlin 2011 Design Conference, Javier Mariscal on Chico & Rita , Markus Angermeier (May 19, 2011), requested on September 20, 2011
  4. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Chico & Rita. Retrieved February 27, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Winner of the Animated Film Festival 2011

Web links