Saturday, 24 May 2014

Chico & Rita

Rating:
80%
Format:
Cinema
Year:
2010
Predominant Genre:
Drama
Plot:
Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment.
Themes:
White supremacy
Similar Titles:
Unknown
Best Performances:
None

Whites cannot Compete

More concerned with Black music - and the love of Black music - than it is with the strident political context of US White supremacism and the Cuban revolution, this lushly romantic and sentimental love story is still something of a winner, despite its lack of developed thematic context.

Rita is animated as a cross between Dorothy Dandridge and Sade. Her erotic appeal is well to the fore in her much smoother movements and her seeming to glide around rather than walk. Both she and Chico are believable lovers and they manage to carry the emotional weight of the movie despite the rocky nature of their sexual relationship.

The animation is a curious mix of primitive techniques and state-of-the-art CGI that works well because it focuses on the characters. Less effective than the Illusionist (Illusionniste), but this film suggests a greater likelihood of cartoons being aimed at adults now, as opposed to the current mediocre standards of Disney and the declining quality of Pixar - albeit that the latter have produced the excellent Toy Story movies.


Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.