![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Movie Review: Belle
Nov. 20th, 2014 01:47 pmI saw the movie Belle in theatrical release, and when I picked up the Blueray a week ago, it reminded me that I had a page of notes towards a review that I’d never finished. Since I haven’t had time to re-view the movie, the write-up is going to be based more on memory that I’d prefer. To begin: I totally loved this movie, both in the deliciousness of the costume drama (my fave genre) and in the focus on a multiply marginalized character.
Belle is the visually lush story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804), the bi-racial daughter of a woman enslaved in the West Indies and a British naval officer (later an admiral). In contrast to the fate of many such children, her father brought her to England and left her with his uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, to raise, in company with another niece of his, Elizabeth Murray. That uncle, as Lord Chief Justice, ruled in two legal cases significant to ending slavery in Britain, and it is not too far a stretch to imagine that the presence in his household of a Black woman raised as a beloved daughter had some influence on his approach to these cases.
The title character, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, spends the earlier part of the movie doing more reacting than acting, though this is plausible within the storyline. We are treated to both the devotion and growing rivalry between the two cousins as they stand on the cusp of adulthood and realize how their paths will inevitably diverge. But as the anti-slavery plot thread comes to the fore, Belle is given a symbolic (if likely unhistoric) role in leaking information about the legal case to interested parties in order to bring pressure on her uncle. The movie takes a familiar approach of entwining the historic events with a romantic arc, matching her with an idealistic young man of law—the beneficiary of her document leaks. (Historically, she didn’t marry until age 32, after her uncle’s death.)
It is inevitable, perhaps, that Belle invokes Standard Historical British Anti-Slavery Movement Movie Plot A (i.e., an exceptional Person of Color inspires a Great White Man to take effective action). One might wish to see more POC agency though, as noted, Belle is given what is in-script a critical role. More successfully, it shows the confusing intersections of status, where money, class, legitimacy, and race all compete to determine a woman’s possible fates. The portrayal of the Mansfields’ awkward but sincere decision to embrace Belle as a member of the family, combines with a realistic depiction of all the characters’ blind spots about the limits of their ability to ensure her social reception.
The scenes in London are effective at normalizing the presence of People of Color in 18th century England, though one detail–however emotionally critical to the story—clinked for me. When Belle first comes to London as a young adult, she is depicted as never having encountered Black household servants before, and there is a touching scene where a Black maid shows her how to dress her hair. Now, I understand the symbolic importance of Black hair, and I get the emotional purpose this scene was intended to provide, but… who the heck has been doing her hair for the last decade or so that she has no idea how to care for it? There was such a failure of story logic there that the intended impact was lost on me.
One of the most effective running motifs in the film is Belle’s attempts to understand her place in the world through portraiture, leading to a depiction of the creation of the familiar portrait of her with her cousin Elizabeth. Throughout the earlier portion of the story, we repeatedly see Belle examining paintings in which Black figures are included in symbolically minimizing and othering contexts (smaller figures, lower postures, gazing at the central White figure in adoration). Belle’s portrait, in a rejection of that framing, shows her equal in presence with her cousin, both centered, and with Belle gazing directly at the viewer, not with a referred gaze that mediates her presence through another figure. The portrait in the movie is not, however, identical to the historic one, and several elements have been omitted that could have detracted from this message of individualism and equality. In the historic painting, Belle is exoticized with a feathered turban, and carries in her arms a basket of fruit and flowers, in echo of a common allegorical motif where a woman stands in for the natural bounties of a non-European region. These are minor quibbles however. Overall, the movie conveys both its story and symbolism effectively and enjoyably. I highly recommend it.
Belle is the visually lush story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804), the bi-racial daughter of a woman enslaved in the West Indies and a British naval officer (later an admiral). In contrast to the fate of many such children, her father brought her to England and left her with his uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, to raise, in company with another niece of his, Elizabeth Murray. That uncle, as Lord Chief Justice, ruled in two legal cases significant to ending slavery in Britain, and it is not too far a stretch to imagine that the presence in his household of a Black woman raised as a beloved daughter had some influence on his approach to these cases.
The title character, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, spends the earlier part of the movie doing more reacting than acting, though this is plausible within the storyline. We are treated to both the devotion and growing rivalry between the two cousins as they stand on the cusp of adulthood and realize how their paths will inevitably diverge. But as the anti-slavery plot thread comes to the fore, Belle is given a symbolic (if likely unhistoric) role in leaking information about the legal case to interested parties in order to bring pressure on her uncle. The movie takes a familiar approach of entwining the historic events with a romantic arc, matching her with an idealistic young man of law—the beneficiary of her document leaks. (Historically, she didn’t marry until age 32, after her uncle’s death.)
It is inevitable, perhaps, that Belle invokes Standard Historical British Anti-Slavery Movement Movie Plot A (i.e., an exceptional Person of Color inspires a Great White Man to take effective action). One might wish to see more POC agency though, as noted, Belle is given what is in-script a critical role. More successfully, it shows the confusing intersections of status, where money, class, legitimacy, and race all compete to determine a woman’s possible fates. The portrayal of the Mansfields’ awkward but sincere decision to embrace Belle as a member of the family, combines with a realistic depiction of all the characters’ blind spots about the limits of their ability to ensure her social reception.
The scenes in London are effective at normalizing the presence of People of Color in 18th century England, though one detail–however emotionally critical to the story—clinked for me. When Belle first comes to London as a young adult, she is depicted as never having encountered Black household servants before, and there is a touching scene where a Black maid shows her how to dress her hair. Now, I understand the symbolic importance of Black hair, and I get the emotional purpose this scene was intended to provide, but… who the heck has been doing her hair for the last decade or so that she has no idea how to care for it? There was such a failure of story logic there that the intended impact was lost on me.
One of the most effective running motifs in the film is Belle’s attempts to understand her place in the world through portraiture, leading to a depiction of the creation of the familiar portrait of her with her cousin Elizabeth. Throughout the earlier portion of the story, we repeatedly see Belle examining paintings in which Black figures are included in symbolically minimizing and othering contexts (smaller figures, lower postures, gazing at the central White figure in adoration). Belle’s portrait, in a rejection of that framing, shows her equal in presence with her cousin, both centered, and with Belle gazing directly at the viewer, not with a referred gaze that mediates her presence through another figure. The portrait in the movie is not, however, identical to the historic one, and several elements have been omitted that could have detracted from this message of individualism and equality. In the historic painting, Belle is exoticized with a feathered turban, and carries in her arms a basket of fruit and flowers, in echo of a common allegorical motif where a woman stands in for the natural bounties of a non-European region. These are minor quibbles however. Overall, the movie conveys both its story and symbolism effectively and enjoyably. I highly recommend it.
