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Taking a few liberties with the real story of 'Belle'
The truth is often slippery in a movie inspired by history, especially when there's not that much in the written record to begin with. In Belle, the filmmakers say the overall truth remains but they took a few liberties with the details. Examples:
Her name: It wasn't Belle, it was Dido Elizabeth Belle: Dido for the Queen of Carthage. Elizabeth for her great-uncle's wife, who helped raise her. And Belle for her mother, Maria Belle, whose name was likely taken from that of the owner of the plantation where she was enslaved. But Belle worked as shorthand for the title and for its allusion to Dido's beauty.
INSPIRATION: A painting, a true story
Her mother: In the movie, Dido's mother is dead but in reality she wasn't. Contemporary descendants believe new research suggests that Maria Belle was set up by Dido's father in a house with land in Pensacola, Fla., in the 1770s.
Her husband: She did marry a man named John Davinier but he was not a lawyer, he was a valet. The filmmakers chose to make him a lawyer to serve as a foil to Lord Mansfield in the legal case he was considering. But it's not clear whether, as in the movie, Davinier was an ardent abolitionist.
The legal case: In the movie, Lord Mansfield is considering the Zong massacre case (can owners of a slave ship who threw 140 slaves overboard collect insurance for their loss of "property"?) but in the scene where he issues his ruling he reads from his ruling in an earlier, similar case that also helped pave the way to the end of slavery. The filmmakers conflated the two cases to provide a full picture of Mansfield as a judge who came to see slavery as morally wrong.
The painting: It is unsigned but long thought to have been painted in 1779 by renowned portraitist Johann Zoffany. But the latest research suggests not. Instead, it was probably painted by a Scot named David Martin who painted a famous portrait of Lord Mansfield.
The heiress: In the movie, Dido has the advantage over her white cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray, in the marriage market because she has an inheritance. In reality Lady Elizabeth had an inheritance too.
The clinch: Couples, no matter how much in love, would not in 18th-century London kiss in passionate embrace in the street. But even movies inspired by history need a love story.