Amma Asante and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's new costume gets thumbs up from Oprah Winfrey
Published: 17 June 2014 | by Pippa Mann
The new costume drama Belle, directed by Amma Asante, born in London in 1969, to Ghanaian immigrant parents, has been praised by non other than Oprah Winfrey.
The film is based on an intriguing 18th Century painting of two young women and it would be unspectacular if it were not for the fact that the women, one black and the other white, are equals.
The 1779 portrait is of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray and was attributed to Johann Zoffany though its painter now remains a mystery
The portrait was commissioned by by their great-uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.
"I'm fairly interested in art but I didn't know anything about it at all until Damian (Jones, producer) sent me a postcard print of the portrait," the film's director Amma Asante told the BBC.
"When I looked at the painting, I saw politics, art, history and race all tied in a big bow but set in an Austen-esque world and that, for a storyteller, is a gift," said Asante.
"The real journey started with the questions - Who is she? Who is the white girl sitting next to her? But even more importantly - who commissioned the painting?"
Director Amma Asante
Asante began her film and television career as a child actress, appearing as a regular in the British school drama Grange Hill and went on to gain credits in other British television series including Desmond's (Channel 4) and Birds Of A Feather (BBC1), and was a Children's Channel presenter for a year.
Played in the film by Tom Wilkinson, Lord Mansfield was the most powerful judge of the 18th Century and, along with his reform of English law, he moved England on the path to abolishing slavery.
"For an aristocratic painting like that, someone had decided these two should be immortalised together and what Lord Mansfield did, having them painted together, to me said he deliberately wanted to show the equality - it was incredible," says Asante.
The two women were cousins, Belle, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, was the illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay, the nephew of Lord Mansfield, while the seated Elizabeth was the daughter of David Murray, the future 2nd Earl of Mansfield.
They were raised by Lord Mansfield, an adoptive-style relationship, in Kenwood House in Hampstead, London.
The film mixes actual historical fact with a little bit of fiction for dramatic effect.
According to Asante, the fictional aspects of the film help to bring the bigger issues together.
"I wanted to take her from girl to woman, I wanted her to have a political awakening and have there be a journey to this confident person you the see in the painting."
Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Belle has already previewed to positive reviews particularly from Oprah Winfrey who says the lead character actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw a star.
"Gugu was perfect for the film because she's smart and has an innate sense of grace, she has to go from child to woman and the weight on her shoulders is incredible."
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was born Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha in Oxford, England and her mother, Anne Raw, is an English nurse, and her father, Patrick Mbatha, is a doctor originally from South Africa.
- BBC/IMDB
The film is based on an intriguing 18th Century painting of two young women and it would be unspectacular if it were not for the fact that the women, one black and the other white, are equals.
The 1779 portrait is of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray and was attributed to Johann Zoffany though its painter now remains a mystery
The portrait was commissioned by by their great-uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.
"I'm fairly interested in art but I didn't know anything about it at all until Damian (Jones, producer) sent me a postcard print of the portrait," the film's director Amma Asante told the BBC.
"When I looked at the painting, I saw politics, art, history and race all tied in a big bow but set in an Austen-esque world and that, for a storyteller, is a gift," said Asante.
"The real journey started with the questions - Who is she? Who is the white girl sitting next to her? But even more importantly - who commissioned the painting?"
Director Amma Asante
Asante began her film and television career as a child actress, appearing as a regular in the British school drama Grange Hill and went on to gain credits in other British television series including Desmond's (Channel 4) and Birds Of A Feather (BBC1), and was a Children's Channel presenter for a year.
Played in the film by Tom Wilkinson, Lord Mansfield was the most powerful judge of the 18th Century and, along with his reform of English law, he moved England on the path to abolishing slavery.
"For an aristocratic painting like that, someone had decided these two should be immortalised together and what Lord Mansfield did, having them painted together, to me said he deliberately wanted to show the equality - it was incredible," says Asante.
The two women were cousins, Belle, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, was the illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay, the nephew of Lord Mansfield, while the seated Elizabeth was the daughter of David Murray, the future 2nd Earl of Mansfield.
They were raised by Lord Mansfield, an adoptive-style relationship, in Kenwood House in Hampstead, London.
The film mixes actual historical fact with a little bit of fiction for dramatic effect.
According to Asante, the fictional aspects of the film help to bring the bigger issues together.
"I wanted to take her from girl to woman, I wanted her to have a political awakening and have there be a journey to this confident person you the see in the painting."
Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Belle has already previewed to positive reviews particularly from Oprah Winfrey who says the lead character actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw a star.
"Gugu was perfect for the film because she's smart and has an innate sense of grace, she has to go from child to woman and the weight on her shoulders is incredible."
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was born Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha in Oxford, England and her mother, Anne Raw, is an English nurse, and her father, Patrick Mbatha, is a doctor originally from South Africa.
- BBC/IMDB
You Might Also Like...
Leave a Comment
Most Recent Posts
