BELLE (2013) – My rating: 8.5/10

I really liked Belle, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw.  Another movie based on a true story that tells the horrors of the Black Plight.  In 1761, Dido Elizabeth Belle was born to a white captain of the Royal Navy and Maria Belle, a Black enslaved African woman from the West Indies.  When her mother died, her father, Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) took his daughter, Belle to his aristocratic uncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife Lady Mansfield (Emily Watson) to be reared in a better environment with all the advantages Blacks were not privy to.  Ironically, the biggest trial in British history, regarding a slave ship and an insurance company, known as the Zong massacre, was being decided by Belle’s great uncle who was the chief magistrate presiding over the case.  Talk of this trial reached Belle who quickly learned what being Black really meant.  She had been sheltered from her heritage until now.  Belle’s cousin, Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon)  was also being rared in the same house by her great uncle, Lord Mansfield.  The two girls enjoyed a nanny, a great uncle and a great aunt who absolutely adored them.  As time past, Belle’s father past away and left her 2000 pounds a year making Belle practically rich while Elizabeth’s father, who remarried,  wouldn’t even acknowledge her, leaving her penniless, at the insistence of his new wife.  This intriguing story is well told and very interesting.  Now that Belle is on DVD and Blu-Ray, it’s definitely worth a look.

DANCING ON THE EDGE – (2013) – My rating: 8/10

This mini series takes place in the 1930s in London, England.  Blacks were still not accepted in the mainstream and many laws were still in place to keep them separated from Whites.  This story is about a jazz band and it’s leader Louis Lester (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) who became entangled with England’s upper class resulting in deceit, murder and love.  Most of this is brought on my one character who wasn’t going for a racial incident but who was a mentally disturbed person who performed out of sickness.  Dancing on the Edge has great entertainment through it’s music and divine singing.  John Goodman has a significant role as an extremely rich businessman who has an unusual obsession.  I thought this series ended leaving the viewer with a taste for more.  I really liked the series but I felt it should have given us more information at the end.  There’s a bevy of actors and actresses who make Dancing on the Edge a success.  It’s currently playing on HBO and is considered a mini series.  It’s aired in 6 parts.