Video: 'Belle' is Timeless, Compelling and Poignant

Photo Credit : Fox Searchlight Pictures

– By Beau Behan, Film Critic & Entertainment Reporter

Originally published at 6:02 a.m. May 10, 2014. Edited to move video to top of the page.

• Belle (2014), PG, 104 min, Drama
• Expanding Nationwide, May 9
• Stars : Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson
• Director : Amma Asante
• Writer : Misan Sagay

As a young woman, Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of an 18th Century Royal Navy Admiral, Sir John Lindsay (Mathew Goode), begins to ask more questions about her identity and her place in the British society.

Raised by her great uncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and Lady Mansfield (Emily Blunt), Belle has led the most sheltered life, in every conceivable way at the Mansfield’s Kenwood House. However, the time has come for her to start choosing her own battles, and making her own decisions in life, especially the ones that matter to her the most — love and happiness.

As she tries to comprehend the various rules and mores set by her society, she meets and falls in love with John Davinier (Sam Reid), a young and ambitious son of a vicar. She is also now beset by Lord Mansfield’s burning question: “You would risk your position for a man without name?”

The love story of Belle was inspired by an 18th-century painting of two beautifully-outfitted girls, one black, one white—a depiction of playfulness, fun, and equality. (See painting in above video.)

Misan Sagay, the film’s screenwriter, became very interested in the painting while she was touring the Scone Palace at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

According to Sagay, the black woman (Dido Elizabeth Belle) in the painting was not named in the House Guide, so she did some further research to find the two women were actually relatives. She adds, “As a writer and a black woman, I was dedicated to finding these stories of other black women in a time when they had little voice.”

She was in-luck as Sagay’s son’s Godmother was a friend of Lady Mansfield, the 8th removed descendant of the character from the film. Based on the archives that were opened for her access, she was able to unlock the mysteries surrounding the relationship between the two young women, known as “Belle and Elizabeth.”

Sagay learned that Belle grew up in an era when the British Empire’s economy depends largely on the slave trade and one-third of London’s black population was free. Given that she was a bi-racial lady in Georgian England, she found it gravely difficult to find her place in the society.

Sir John Lindsay, Dido Belle’s father, left her in the custody of her Great Uncle, Lord Mansfield, and his wife, Lady Mansfield. Childless, the couple raised Dido and her half-cousin, the Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose father, a widower, left her in their parental guardianship after her mother died.

Being an art lover himself, Producer Damian Jones was also fascinated by the painting and was given an early script draft of Sagay’s. The more he read her engaging tale about Dido Belle, the more he thought of a movie character ,who will undoubtedly captivate the interest of many filmgoers.

“Dido’s story is about class, race, money and marriage — all of the human condition still very relevant today,” Jones remarks.

Sagay’s and Jones’ collaboration continued with the addition of director Amma Asante, a recipient of both BAFTA Award and the London Alfred Dunhill UK Film Talent Award.

“The painting offered a nugget of history, a story that has never been told,” Asante says. “Dido has such a complex identity – she is this combination of black and white, of being rich and coming from a very poor background (originally).”

Although the movie’s depiction of the love story between Belle and Davinier arose mostly from the imagination, it provided an anchor to the other monumental plot of the movie’s screenplay — the Zong slave ship trial.

This landmark case, also known as the Zong massacre, is about the killing of at least 100 enslaved Africans in 1781. They were thrown overboard by the ship’s crew due to low water supply. As a result, given that the slaves were labeled as their “properties,” the Zong‘s owners made a claim to their insurers for the slaves’ deaths. However, the insurers refused to make the payment; Lord Mansfield, in his capacity as the Lord Chief Justice of England, had to preside over the case.

Indeed, as the tale of Belle was becoming more fascinating every day, Asante and Jones were also searching for the actress that could personify Belle. It was a long search until they met British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw , who has been seen on Broadway playing Ophelia in Jude Law’s Hamlet , and on television series “Touch” with Kiefer Sutherland.

“Gugu is able to reach inside the character and allow anyone to understand Dido’s unique experience,” comments Asante.

Being a mixed-race woman herself, Mbatha-Raw was fascinated by the existence of ‘dual heritage’ in the 1780s England.”The fact that Dido was a pioneer of her time is amazing to me, and I wanted to do justice to her. Her story needs to be known.”

Even Sir John Lindsay would agree: “What is right can never be impossible.”