Watching Belle, the refreshingly atypical costume drama released nationwide this weekend, I was reminded of a quote from a book I finished recently. In Jill Lepore's biography of Jane Franklin (Ben's sister), she writes: "History is what is written and can be found; what isn't saved is lost, sunken and rotted, eaten by the earth." [Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin]
If Misan Sagay hadn't seen this portrait in a Scottish castle, we may never have learned about the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Based on the limited facts the screenwriter was able to find in her research -- given that Dido was a female in the 18th Century, there's unfortunately not a large amount known about her -- Sagay crafted a tale about this real woman, illegitimately born of a black woman and a white admiral, who was raised by the Murray family.
Dido (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Touch) is left as a child with her great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson,...
If Misan Sagay hadn't seen this portrait in a Scottish castle, we may never have learned about the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Based on the limited facts the screenwriter was able to find in her research -- given that Dido was a female in the 18th Century, there's unfortunately not a large amount known about her -- Sagay crafted a tale about this real woman, illegitimately born of a black woman and a white admiral, who was raised by the Murray family.
Dido (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Touch) is left as a child with her great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson,...
- 5/24/2014
- by Elizabeth Stoddard
- Slackerwood
A few months after 12 Years A Slave took home the Oscar gold as Best Picture comes another historical drama centering on the issue of slavery, but from a very different perspective. For one thing, it’s set in England where slavery was abolished nearly a hundred years before we “yanks” got with the program. Oh, and the person instrumental, according to this film, was a woman of mixed race. Let’s emulate Peabody and Sherman and jump in our cinematic “way-back” machine and drop in an a great debate spurred on in part by the beauty named, appropriately enough, Belle.
About 100 years before Solomon Northrup went back to his family, an officer of the British Royal Navy, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) pays a visit to his uncle and aunt, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield and the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (Tom Wilkinson) and Lady Mansfield...
About 100 years before Solomon Northrup went back to his family, an officer of the British Royal Navy, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) pays a visit to his uncle and aunt, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield and the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (Tom Wilkinson) and Lady Mansfield...
- 5/16/2014
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A judge turned down a prosecutor's motion Monday to send Chris Brown to jail, citing the R&B singer's continued good behavior and progress in a rehabilitation program.Superior Court Judge James R. Brandlin said probation officials reported that Brown is making good progress in treatment and must remain in the program unless he is given permission by the court or his probation officer. Brown was sentenced to three months of in-patient rehab in November after the singer was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault over an altercation several weeks earlier in Washington, D.C. A prosecutor sought to have...
- 2/4/2014
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
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