But it's clear Mansfield commissioned it, which would have been a brave act for the time and place. In fact, though the painting is famous among art lovers as one of the first to depict a black person as equal to a white, it's not even clear who painted it.
But few people know about Dido, and that's what Belle intends to correct - albeit with liberal use of imagination since not that much is recorded about her life, even in family archives. Mansfield is regularly cited in court rulings to this day, including U.S. His (legal) legacy is very active today but he's one of the forgotten (great) men of history." "We are so glad the story of the first earl is coming to the screen, because he was a most remarkable man. "(Dido's) story is unbelievable - it went against every social convention of the time," says Murray. The Murrays are especially pleased that their ancestors' stories (Dido's was largely unknown even to them for centuries) are coming to light, and being added to British school curricula, Murray says. "Historically, (the filmmakers) have done really, really well - my father was really worried, he thought it might be a complete shambles and he was pleasantly surprised," says William Murray, 25, Master of Stormont, the future 10th Earl of Mansfield and a family consultant on the film. That is where the 1779 painting of Dido and Elizabeth still hangs. The people most thrilled about Belle are members of the Murray family of Scotland, descendants of Earl Mansfield and owners of Scone Palace (900 years old, where early kings of Scotland were crowned). "At first I thought I might have done other things with it but now I think they actually did the right thing."
"As historians, we're always worried about what (movie) people do, but I was moved by ( Belle)," she says. Paula Byrne, a historian of the era and biographer of Jane Austen (an acquaintance of Lady Elizabeth Murray), says she can understand why moviegoers might be both fascinated and skeptical of the story. "We tried to not create anything that distorts the truth or takes anything away, but hopefully will illuminate," says director Asante, 44, a former child actress in Britain and a screenwriter ( Brothers & Sisters) in the USA. "Even if it takes liberties with some facts, it doesn't take liberties with what people feel." "What I went for in the script was truth," says Sagay, who says she had long wanted to write a "Jane Austen slavery drama" to depict how British society of that era was built on its slave trade. Britain was as dependent as America on a slave economy but it was a faraway trade most didn't have to confront face to face. Britain had no plantations on its home soil and, according to historians, there were only about 15,000 black people in London at the time, most paid servants.
#True story portrait painter heals sufferers plus#
It's also got a Downton Abbey star, Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley), plus Oscar winner Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson and Emily Watson.)Īlong the way, the filmmakers explore the status of women, the insurance value of slaves, English class prejudices, and the way marriages among the toffs could be negotiated with an intensity akin to billion-dollar hedge-fund deals.Īmericans will recognize another story Belle tells, about the contrasting facts of slavery in the two countries at the time: America had to fight a war to rid itself of slavery and the Brits passed a law. If this year's Oscar winner for best picture, 12 Years a Slave, was a British film about a little-known American slavery story, then Belle is a British film about the British experience of grappling with slavery - only with fabulous clothes, legal drama, a star-crossed love story, and a Downton Abbey-style setting.
And it's true in showcasing Mansfield's role in paving the way for the landmark 1833 British law abolishing slavery.
It's true, the filmmakers say, in all the important aspects. Wait, how did we not know about this? And is it true?
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