Chico & Rita
Thursday February 9th, 7:00pm Landmark’s Lumiere Theater
1572 California Street — San Francisco Film Society
Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and desire unite them as they chase their dreams and each other from Havana to New York to Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas. With an original soundtrack by legendary Cuban pianist and five-time Grammy®-winning composer Bebo Valdés, Chico & Rita captures a defining moment in the evolution of history and jazz, and features the music of (and animated cameos by) Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Tito Puente, Chano Pozo, and others.
MY TAKE – Fabulous. The animation perfectly captures Havana of the late ‘40s, and ‘50s before Castro, the color, the street life, the clubs, the cars… just right. Later scenes in other cities are less successful, but plenty good. (How do you draw Las Vegas of the 50s???) And the jazz is plentiful and superb.
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