Connect with us

Film Trailers

First Trailer & Poster For Lavish Slave Drama ‘Belle’ Starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw

With the likes of Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED and Steve McQueen’s 12 YEARS A SLAVE reminding us of America’s shameful history of slavery (albeit in very different ways), we’ve another effort on the way with BELLE. Rising British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw leads in title role centred on the illegitimate, bi-racial daughter born of Royal Navy admiral Sir John Lindsay and his black mistress slave. The film explores how she fits into her Aristocratic ancestry, while being looked as an embarrassing shame.

In late eighteenth century England, Dido Elizabeth Belle is born to a white British admiral and a black Caribbean slave. The admiral’s well-bred family is appalled, but when he returns to sea, custom dictates that they raise his child as an aristocrat. Britain’s imposing Lord Mansfield (Wilkinson) is both Dido’s uncle and the family patriarch, and instructs this bi-racial woman (Mbatha-Raw) to respect both the law and the social codes of her station. She is a lady, but she is an embarrassment. How is she ever to marry?

We have the first trailer and poster from the Fox Searchlight film directed by Amma Asante from a screenplay written by Misan Sagay. The outstanding supporting cast includes Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson, Penelope Wilton, Matthew Goode, Tom Felton, Sarah Gadon and Miranda Richardson.


belle_xlg

BELLE is released in the US 2nd May 2014 No word yet on a UK date.

Source: Apple

Craig was our great north east correspondent, proving that it’s so ‘grim up north’ that losing yourself in a world of film is a foregone prerequisite. He has been studying the best (and often worst) of both classic and modern cinema at the University of Life for as long as he can remember. Craig’s favorite films include THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, JFK, GOODFELLAS, SCARFACE, and most of John Carpenter’s early work, particularly THE THING and HALLOWEEN.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. shea

    Oct 20, 2013 at 10:15 am

    Well, this isn’t a “slave” drama like the article states, she was a FREE woman of color with a decent familial inheritance and was considered a “natural” daughter of the admiral, though no legitimate. If one write an article, one should at least get the history right. Slave drama, yeah right!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Latest Posts

More in Film Trailers