Chico y Rita (NR) 2010
This animated movie is a feel-good romantic melodrama about two Cuban jazz musicians by the Spanish directors Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba. Trueba won an Academy Award for his film Belle Époque in 1994. Chico y Rita was nominated fort Best Animated Feature at 84th Academy Awards
Chico y Rita's main focus is the on-again, off-again romantic relationship between the two main characters, Chico and Rita, but there are several historical and cultural topics that can be explored using this film. The story line spans several decades beginning in 1950's Cuba, showcasing the the Tropicana and the success of Cuban jazz musicians both in Cuba, and later in the U.S. as the main characters bring their musical talents to New York City. The communist revolution of 1959 is shown only in passing, through a jubilant street celebration in Havana, but the post-Castro economic hardships are clearly illustrated by Chico's dilapidated Havana apartment in the later years of his life. The story line also highlights racial discrimination in 1960's United States, as Rita may be the star attraction at a glittering Las Vegas hotel but, as a black woman, she certainly can't be a guest at that same hotel. The 2-D animation is amazingly detailed and colorful as it showcases these times periods and cultures. Many of my students commented that they "forgot" that they were watching an animate film because of the rich and detailed artwork.
Chico y Rita is readily available to rent, purchase and stream through both Netflix and Amazon.
There are a couple of sex scenes in the movie (it isn't your typical animated film!) but they can easily be skipped if showing this film in a high school classroom (assuming that you are watching the film in class).
I have taught this movie in my 300 survey of Spanish and Latin American film course, so the format in which the movie is presented is similar to what I talked about in my post about the film También la lluvia.
As with También la lluvia, there is a veritable treasure-trove of resources available online about the movie, including movie reviews in Spanish (of course), interviews with the directors, and numerous "making of" videos. We filled almost two full 75 minute classes with post-viewing activities that challenged students to read, speak, listen and write in class.
Pre-viewing activities in class:
Student presentation topics before watching the film:
- La Tropicana, Habana Cuba
- La música Afro-Cuban Jazz, incluyendo Chano Pozo y Bebo Valdés
- La Revolución comunista en Cuba 1959
- El melodrama
As always, students were asked to complete Comprehension and Analysis questions while watching the movie outside of class.
Post-viewing, in-class activities:
Our first activity in class after viewing the movie was a paired speaking activity, in which students needed to interview each other about various aspects of the film and write down their partner's responses. I choose to collect the written responses, but depending on time, you could have students present what the learned from their partners to others in the class to give students further speaking practice. Alternatively, students could share aspects of their partners' answers using a student response software, like Socrative, to enable the class to look for commonalities in the opinions. We then watched two videos in class (which could also be done outside of class, as homework) and students answered questions they watched. (The links to the videos are in this this document, also). One of the videos is a "making of", which was particularly interesting since this is an animated film. The other video is an interview with the directors. We did a full-class follow-up afterwards.
Students had a second night of homework related to this movie, which included reading a movie review in Spanish and answering some basic comprehension questions.
My students found this to be a fun movie, and they were active participants in all of the activities. I will definitely include this in my course again the next time I teach it.
No comments:
Post a Comment