This film is adapted from a true historical event in England: Belle's father was a British naval officer and her mother was a black slave in the West Indies. When she was four years old, her father brought her back to England and gave her to her uncle, William Murray brought up. As the chief justice of the United Kingdom, her uncle can naturally allow Belle to be well-dressed and well-educated, but because of her mixed blood, Belle can only be with the servants when entertaining guests.
When Belle was 20 years old (1781), in order to reduce losses, the owner of a British slave ship, the Jung, defrauded the insurance company, lying about the lack of fresh water, and put most of the black slaves into the Atlantic Ocean, creating a The infamous Zong Massacre in the history of the slave trade. The owner of the first trial won the case, but the insurance company refused to accept it and appealed to the Supreme Court. This incident has also become a major theme of the film.
Another main line of the story revolves around Belle's marriage: as a mixed-race illegitimate child of a noble family, Belle's situation in choosing a mate is very embarrassing. Men in the upper class will not choose her, and men from ordinary families cannot climb up. Fortunately, her father left Bei Er an inheritance before his death, which allowed Bei Er to be independent of men and have no worries of food and clothing. But Belle doesn't want to be Aunt Mary, an unmarried old girl who spends the rest of her life as a housekeeper at her uncle's house.
At that time, the British tradition was to pass on the title of the eldest son, so Lord Ashford's second son Oliver proposed to Belle. In view of the circumstances at the time, Belle readily agreed, but the heroine actually had another man in her heart, John, the son of a local priest. Davinier. The first acquaintance between the two was not pleasant, and John Davinier hurried to Kenwood House to report the news, disturbing Belle. However, during his studies at Kenwood Manor, he had some contact with Belle, and the two fell in love secretly, but the young man was engaged to another woman he did not love as early as his family arranged. When Belle heard the news, she was disappointed.
This dilemma comes to light when Oliver's brother refuses to propose to Belle's cousin Elizabeth Murray (Elizabeth's father remarried and left her with no fortune) and commits indecent behavior to Belle. Belle realized that Oliver chose her only because of status and money, and that he was only an accessory to him, but John Davinier's feelings for Belle came from the heart: John Davinier would not hesitate to move forward because of Belle's skin color , let alone take the lead because of her income. He tore off the labels and attributes of Belle, and only loved her as a pure person.
Zong Case ended with the insurance company's victory. John Davinier and Belle also had lovers and got married. The happy ending also gave us a lot of thinking: 1. Human beings are created equal, and there is a long way to go in the pursuit of liberation and happiness. Unlike the United States, which liberated slaves through violent wars, Britain took the initiative to withdraw from the historical stage of the slave trade with the help of the law and peace movement, which is inseparable from the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the historical tradition.
Second, to a certain extent, "Beautiful Belle" is a female film. Although the suppression of the slave trade is a main line of the story, the background of the abolition of slavery is that people, regardless of skin color, gender, class, etc. Many attributes, pure human respect. Another main line of the story reflects the issue of women's dependence on men and their low status. However, at the end of the story, the director used a painting to give everyone a good hope: people of color and white people are equal, and women can also Have your own portrait and hang it on the ancestral hall.
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