The movie and the history

While we expect historical fiction to take license with it's story, I'm struggling with one particular aspect, the size of her allowance (2000£ a year in the movie vs 30£ in reality, 100£ for her white cousin, while the head coachman's is 15£). But it is used to make an excellent point--as Dido says, she was saved twice by her inheritance--from the color of her skin, and from the restrictions on her gender. The irony is especially poignant with it being played out in one of the most class conscious societies ever.

Though the legal case in 1772 on which her great-uncle, the Earl of Mansfield ruled is embellished, it still represents the spark that marked the beginning of the end for slavery...in the civilized world.

The production is very lavish for an independent film. Its budget has not been made available, but Fox Searchlight's involvement probably bumps it up into the semi-Idie catagory.

During the story, a painting was shown being made of the two cousins whom I was coming to suspect were probably a good deal more homely than the actresses portraying them. It represents an actual portrait that was made and shown at the end of the film (cut and paste the link below). It was painted by an unknown artist on the Earl's Kenwood estate, and is now on display today at the Scone Palace in Perthshire Scotland. It was the inspiration for this story, it's certainly a fascinating portrait, and if anything, if they are accurately represented, they outshine their admittedly beautiful modern proxies. 9/10


[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Dido_Elizabeth_Belle.jpg[/img]