Dancing on the Edge

2013
7.4| 6h3m| en| More Info
Released: 04 February 2013 Released
Producted By: Endgame Entertainment
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013qqwt
Synopsis

A black jazz band becomes entangled in the aristocratic world of 1930s London as they seek fame and fortune.

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Reviews

Pluskylang Great Film overall
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
freda747 You get the gist of this quickly. Its a mystery set in 1930's England around a black jazz band and the near murder of one of its girl singers. But I was thrown in the first episode by the bizarre way the people were characterized. 1)*** Americans- angry, violent, sexually deviant and slightly uncivilized. No explanation for this. The white American man is insanely rich, fat a woman beater. The black American man was gone from the show fairly quickly. He was incompetent as a manger, thuggishly angry, obsessed with having sex with white women, and - despite having a death sentence waiting for him back in RACIST America- unable to control his violent ego and "attitude" enough to stay out of trouble and not get deported. 2)*** Rich/Royal/ Upper class English- slightly stupid, slightly racist, slightly horny, and potentially dangerous. Black English Jazz band- the band and the music/performances in this program are fairly bad. Not at all what was. 3)*** Black English female singers- This one really threw me! Jesse, the thinner lighter of the 2 singers is being swooned over as if she were stunning. When in fact, the actress is barely attractive. It seems to be an odd English thing to describe mixed race or light skinned people as beautiful without having to actually get one that fits the bill (which an American production would have done). Carla, the darker- but full figured black singer has a much better face. Her bone structure is very striking and on par with the white actresses- yet she is being sold as the less attractive and less talented of the two. Jessie is also being offered as a GREAT singer, when the actresses voice is ...well....nothing. Carla- the darker skinned actress is being played as naive and unambitious, and slightly dim witted- wanting only to prop up her better looking, more talented friend Jess. Its almost bizarre.Of course, the only good people are English and socially in the middle. The white woman photographer willing to love a black man, the black English man- who is very even tempered and plays piano, and the white, lower middle classwriter/manager of the band. *****THIS IS NOT A SPOILER- I have a feeling they will make Carla- the dark skinned girl singer the killer or co-killer (with one of the upper class, stereotypically defective males). She is too tall and too physically large to be good. It fits the weird formula of this mini-series***
petervintner Firstly, at the time of writing (16 September 2013) the information for this on the main page is incorrect. It says this film/series is not yet released. However, I've just watched all 5 episodes on DVD (2 DVDs to be precise), plus the extra almost 1 hour "interview" between Stanley and Louis. The DVD release date was March 2013.Like another reviewer I simply don't understand some of the poor ratings for this film. It was an immaculate production with an excellent cast for, I think, a cracking, well written story. It has style, suspense, humour, sensuality, good looks, great music and, as with so much of Stephen Poliakoff's work, a lot of intelligent dialogue and some fairly long scenes. But that's why I'm a fan of Poliakoff's work - it is literate, well researched and observed, and you have to pay attention. It rewards that attention many time over.I must say there were some performances that were a revelation to me. Jacqueline Bisset for a start, and the late Mel Smith. But everyone was really outstanding in the parts they played. Joanna Vanderham is astonishingly mature well beyond her years (19 or 20 years old during the production) and is destined I feel to be a great actress. One cannot comment on this production without mentioning the singers - 2 established actresses who had never sung in public, in theatre, TV or on film before. They did their own singing and were amazingly good.
Prismark10 This television series from the celebrated Stephen Poliakoff portrays 1930s upper class London but focuses on a Black Jazz band travelling the clubs of Britain, mixing with the high ups of polite British society but reveals an underbelly of prejudice, secrets and murder.Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Louis Lester, trained in the USA but his jazz band takes London by storm when armed with two female singers. Matthew Goode plays a music journalist who champions the band in his music paper. John Goodman turns up as a mogul who wants to buy newspapers.Although there are twists and turns, Poliakoff needs to stick to writing, needs a stronger story editor and get someone else to direct and interpret his words to the screen.It looks good, there is a fine all star cast from Jacqueline Bisset, Jane Asher, Anthony Head. The music and song which was written originally for the series is fine with a few memorable tunes but it meanders too much. The murder story has little mystery as you have a rough idea who the culprit might be.
Longshot356 The music is lazily anachronistic. Nothing else seems to have been given any more attention. Lacks style, drama and narrative. Characters are paper thin clichés, dialogue utterly predictable and inauthentic.Shockingly disappointing.Why are BBC attempts at this kind of thing always so embarrassingly inferior to their American counterparts. I refuse to believe we don't have script writers, actors and DOPs every bit as good. My suspicion is it has something to do with BBC management/ production.In all ways terrible.Off to reread Evelyn Waugh to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

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