Belle

Dir: Amma Asante

2014

*****

I remember director Amma Asante when she played a schoolgirl in Grange Hill during the golden years of the late 1980s. I’m not knocking Grange Hill – at all – but from that to being one of the most interesting contemporary directors working today is an impressive step. I don’t exaggerate either, Assante’s film is sublime and one of the best of 2014. Belle tells the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, or at least what is known of her. The film is inspired by the 1779 painting of her alongside her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray, at Kenwood House, which was commissioned by their great-uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, who was then the Lord Chief Justice of England. Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay (played by the captivating Gugu Mbatha-Raw) was born in 1761, the natural daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman in the West Indies, and Captain Sir John Lindsay, a British Royal Navy officer. After Dido's mother's death in 1765, Captain Lindsay takes her from the West Indies slums and entrusts her to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice (played by Tom Wilkinson), and his wife Elizabeth (Emily Watson), who live at Kenwood House, an estate in Hampstead outside London. Lord and Lady Mansfield raise Dido as a free gentlewoman, along with their niece Lady Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon), who came to live with them after her mother died and her father remarried. When the two cousins reach adulthood, the Mansfields commission an oil portrait of their two great-nieces, but Dido is unhappy about sitting for it as she is worried that it will portray her as a subordinate, similar to other portraits she has seen depicting aristocrats with black servants. Dido's father dies and leaves her the generous sum of £2,000 a year, enough to make her an heiress. Lady Elizabeth, by contrast, will have no income from her father, whose son from his new wife has been named his sole heir. Arrangements are made for Elizabeth to have her coming-out to society, but Lord and Lady Mansfield believe no gentleman will agree to marry Dido because of her mixed-race status, so while she will travel to London with her cousin, she will not be "out" to society. Lord Mansfield agrees to take a vicar's son, John Davinier (Sam Reid), into an apprenticeship for law. In 1783, Mansfield hears the case of Gregson v. Gilbert, regarding the payment of an insurance claim, for slaves killed when thrown overboard by the captain of a slave-ship — an event now known as the Zong massacre. Dido helps her uncle with his correspondence and after John tells her about the Zong case, she begins sneaking correspondence to him which he believes will advance the cause of the abolitionists. Lord Mansfield and John have a disagreement on the main issue of the case. John is told not to see Dido again, and his apprenticeship is at an end. Dido’s aunts, Lady Mansfield and Lady Mary Murray (Penelope Wilton), Lord Mansfield's sister, seek to steer Dido into an engagement with Oliver Ashford (James Norton), son of a scheming grand dame and younger brother to the bigoted James Ashford (Tom Felton). At first James is interested in Elizabeth but stops courting her once he discovers she will have no inheritance. Oliver, who is without fortune, proposes to Dido and she accepts, although she continues to see John. James takes Dido aside, tells her she will disgrace his family's name, then insults and manhandles her. Dido later tells Elizabeth of his true character and says she will give part of her inheritance to her for a dowry so she can find a different match. Lord Mansfield finds out about Dido's visits to John and confronts both of them. During the confrontation, John professes his love for Dido. Sometime later, Dido meets with Oliver and breaks off their engagement. Dido is relieved when the painting is unveiled, showing her as Elizabeth's equal. She tells Lord Mansfield that the portrait commission proves that he can defy convention. Dido sneaks into the balcony of the Inn of Court, so that she can hear Lord Mansfield narrowly rule that the Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, is not due insurance payments for the slaves the crew threw overboard during the voyage. The ship's officers claimed they ordered this action because they were out of potable water. Lord Mansfield discovers, however, that the Zong passed by many ports without stopping for more water, before killing the slaves. It appeared to Lord Mansfield that the slaves' quarters were over-crowded, making them sick and not likely to fetch a high price at auction, so the officers decided they would be worth more in insurance payments after their loss. Lord Mansfield sees John and Dido outside the Court after his ruling and says that Dido can only marry a gentleman. Therefore, he agrees to resume John's apprenticeship in law, so that he can become a lawyer. Dido and John share a kiss, both in full acknowledgement of their romantic feelings. Learning about how Belle was (and wasn’t) accepted in society is an amazing insight into how many an opinion could have been changed during such an important time in history. The film is fiction in that Belle really didn’t get involved with the case at all but she was taken in by Lord Mansfield and was loved by him. The film reads between the lines and sugar-coats it somewhat – and to be honest Lord Mansfield only really asked for a re-trial due to a lack of evidence, it was an earlier trial - Somerset v. Stewart – that was key in abolishing the slave trade but most of the issues raised in the story ring true and must have been true of the time and situation. The film hits all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order which I think is rarely acceptable but with exceptions. The script is utterly sublime as are the performances that deliver it. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is phenomenal as is Tom Wilkinson. I really liked Sam Reid also and Penelope Wilton was wonderful as always. Everyone else was brilliant too but I can’t help but think Tom Felton has fallen into the type-cast trap and it was almost impossible not to see Miranda Richardson’s Lady Ashford as anything but a toned-down Queenie, the role she played for several years in Blackadder. However, all the performances were great and the film is near perfect, except in its forgivable historical accuracy.