Movie: Belle

Belle: a British drama based upon the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle.  We first meet Dido in 1769 when she is approximately 8 years old.  In the opening scene, her father, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), a Navy captain, has come to retrieve her.  He, in turn, leaves Dido with his uncle and aunt, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and Lady Mansfield (Emily Watson).  Sir John is never seen again on screen.  Also, we never see Dido’s mother, Maria Bell, an African woman.  After introducing us to Dido and her new family, the movie jumps ahead ten years where we meet Dido, played superbly by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, as a young woman.  The movie was inspired by a portrait of Dido and her cousin, Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon), and shows the girls living at Kenwood House as aristocrats in 18^th century England before slavery was outlawed.  The painting still exists.  It hangs at Scone Palace in Scotland.  Lord and Lady Mansfield do not have any children and raise the two cousins, who are about the same age, as their own.  Critical to the film is the fact that Lord Mansfield is not just an ordinary lord; he is the Chief Justice of England.  Further, he has pending before him the Zong case, whose primary issue is whether an insurance company must pay a ship owner/slaver for the death of slaves who drowned allegedly saving the ship.  While the legal story is a vital part of the movie, it is not the film’s central focus.  Rather, the film is a Jane Austen telling of aristocratic courtship rituals in 18^th century England.  The film plays on the fact that Elizabeth Murray has no inheritance but her cousin, Dido, does.  The acting is excellent and the script by Misan Sagay and Amma Asante holds your attention.  Asante is also the director.  Very little is actually known about life in the Mansfield home.  The historical record validates the fact that although non-whites were permitted to interact with guests after the meal, the dinner itself was segregated.  However, there is no “Butler tells all biography” regarding the cousins, their interactions with the granduncle and his wife, and their interactions with each other.  Historical dates are treated loosely in the film.  For example, the film presents the portrait painting of the cousins and the Zong case in the same time frame.  However, the Zong ruling, which was an important link to the eventual outlawing of slavery in England, was decided four years after the cousins’ portrait was completed.  When Lord Mansfield renders his decision in Zong, it has him commenting on slavery.  The quote used in the film, however, is from the Somersett case in which Lord Mansfield made clear his anti-slavery views.  If you research Belle, you will find a variety of factual inaccuracies, none of which interfered with my enjoyment of this excellent 105 minute movie.  I highly recommend it.