Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Belle !!!


This is the first time I've felt compelled to RAVE about one of the films I've chosen for the Movie Club. Some of us saw Belle yesterday and I still can't stop thinking about how wonderful it is - a treat for the eye, ear, heart and brain and a wonderful history lesson about something that led to what might be called the beginning of the end of slavery in Britain - all based on real events.

So if you haven't already seen Belle, this is my strong recommendation that you do so. Below is an outline of the plot plus a Wikipedia listing regarding the film's historical basis. As you'll see, Belle was inspired by this painting:




Plot: Dido Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy officer, is brought to England by her father and left in the care of his uncle, Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, at his estate of Kenwood House. Though the social mores of the time make her an outsider, Dido is raised by Mansfield as an aristocrat alongside her cousin Elizabeth. Dido's burgeoning relationship with a young lawyer, John Davinier, meets with the disapproval of Mansfield who considers the match beneath her. At the same time Mansfield is deliberating on a slavery case that will advance the cause of the Abolitionists.


The film is inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle beside her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray. Commissioned by William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the portrait of his two nieces hung in England's Kenwood House, until 1922. The painting,[14] once thought to be by Zoffany and now attributed to an unknown artist, hangs at Scotland's Scone Palace. It was one of the first portraits to portray a black subject on an equal eye-line with a white aristocrat.


Very little is known about Dido Belle's life in the Mansfield home. The film centers on Dido's relationship with an aspiring young lawyer and is set at a time of legal significance as the potential ramifications of the Zong massacre become apparent. Lord Mansfield's ruling on this infamous case, in England's Court of King's Bench, became an important step in bringing an end to slavery in England.
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     Terry

Friday, May 9, 2014

Belle on May 13

Now that the new movie listings are out, I can tell you all where and when Movie Club members will be seeing Belle: Tuesday, May 13, at the Varsity Cinema (Bay/Bloor) for the 1:30 screening. Let's meet in front of the box office about 15 minutes earlier.

I know that this is not great timing for those of you who've asked me to choose later screenings. But we're committed to matinees with a snack or meal afterward. In the case of Belle, the next screening isn't until 4:10, which would mean not leaving for home until 7:00 or later for those who choose to eat after the film.

Speaking of which, everyone who went to the Bloor Street Diner (one floor down from the cinema) last month liked it. So let's go there. And if you plan to do so, please EMAIL ME NO LATER THAN NOON on MONDAY, MAY 12, to say so, so I can make a reservation for the correct number of noshers.

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Terry

Friday, May 2, 2014

Next Movie Club Outing: May 13

We're going to see if the SECOND Tuesday of each month works out better than the first one has done lately, in terms of movie releases that are likely to interest us. So mark your calendar for May 13.
The film that strikes me as arguably the best scheduled to arrive by then is Belle. Check out the synopsis and trailer below and let me know if you agree. Or, if you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.


Belle Storyline

Amma Asante's Belle is like a Jane Austen novel spiked with an extra shot of social conscience. It's based on the true story of a mixed-race 18th-century woman named Dido Elizabeth Belle who was raised in upper-crust British society but never able to fully enter it. Beautifully played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Dido is the illegitimate daughter of a slave woman and a Royal Navy admiral who leaves her in the care of her aristocratic great-uncle (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson). They raise her as an equal — or as much of one as the era permits. While she's doted on by her family, Dido's not allowed to dine with company, who regard her as scandalously exotic. Or, as Miranda Richardson's catty Lady Ashford remarks, ''I had no idea she'd be so...black.''

As Dido and her impetuous cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) blossom into young women, they're put on the marriage market. And the message is clear: Women during this time were, like slaves, property to be auctioned off, making Dido doubly powerless. The added irony is that although she has a sizable inheritance, she's considered less marriageable than her penniless white cousin. Who will love her? She meets a commoner — a dreamy vicar's son (Sam Reid) — who's so fired up about slavery and Dido herself that he always seems on the verge of tears, or perhaps auditioning for the role of Mr. Darcy. Like Downton Abbey but with corsets, culottes, and tricorn hats, Belle subtly skewers the absurd rules and hypocrisies of class. But the real takeaway is Mbatha-Raw. She makes a case for why she ought to be a star.