Chico & Rita

Cuba, 1948. Writer/director Fernando Trueba follows the romance of a beautiful, talented nightclub singer, and her talented but under-recognised Piano player. Rita’s life is turned upside down when a smooth-talking Yankee persuades her he can give her a shot at the big time in New York – but he’s not interested in her piano-playing partner. From the clubs of Havana to the seedy night life of New York, Rita and Chico scrape a living, struggling to maintain their professional partnership and their passionate affair. This film is a classy, sunny and sexy animation for a grown up audience – the distinctive animation and design owes look to co-director Javier Mariscal, who is better known for his work as an artist and designer.

This film crystallises beautifully one of the defining moments of evolution in the history of Jazz, not dryly, as in a textbook, nor forcefully, but as a fitting backdrop to this passionate, very Hispanic love-story. The music, as one would expect, is the hidden star of this film – both unobtrusive and completely key to Chico and Rita’s tragic-comic love story.

Suzie Gallbladder