“Amor Crónico” may be the most high-concept concert documentary since “Stop Making Sense.”
Shot during a 2010 tour of Cuba by Cuban-born, New York-based singer CuCu Diamantes — the first such homecoming tour by a Cuban-American musician in 50 years — the film interweaves concert footage from eight venues into a surreal, fictionalized love story centering on a triangle featuring Diamantes, a lovestruck dwarf named Guarapo (first-time actor Liosky Clavero) and a hunky member of Diamantes’s band (guitarist Andres Levin, who in real life is also the singer’s husband). The affectionate yet gently satirical narrative (written in Spanish, with subtitles) includes jokes about Cuba’s inefficient infrastructure, as well as apparently unstaged scenes of Diamantes interacting with locals.
The songs, on the other hand, are unsubtitled, suggesting — in this case, quite accurately — that music knows no borders. They are, justifiably, the film’s main focus. Featuring guest appearances by such Cuban music stars as trumpeter Alexander Abreu and the rumba band Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, the extended performances by the Grammy Award-nominated Diamantes, who’s shown shimmying next to a 32-foot-long stiletto shoe at every concert, sizzle with sex and sass, even if you don’t understand what she’s singing.
The plot, such as it is, is loose. Focusing on the difficulty of arranging transportation for the band (and that awkward giant shoe), the story has only the vaguest political overtones. Chalk that up to writer-director Jorge Perugorría, an actor best known for playing the gay dissident Diego in 1993’s Academy Award-nominated “Strawberry and Chocolate.” Perugorría, who still lives in Cuba, knows how to poke fun at such aspects of life under Communism as chronic food and fuel shortages, drawing chuckles without drawing blood.
The story line isn’t, strictly speaking, necessary. Diamantes’s music stands solidly on its own high-heeled feet. But “Amor Crónico” uses it to season what might otherwise be just another concert film. It adds a layer of personal and cultural history to the music, enriching an already savory musical experience.
