Belle (2013 Amma Asante)

Misan Sagay, a former doctor, drafted a script in 2004 after seeing the painting, and is given sole credit for the screenplay, though Amma maintains that she substantially rewrote it - see Guardian article. Neither had much previous experience though Ms Asante did write her previous feature A Way of Life in 2004. I'd guess there's truth in her claim. The screenplay is good and cinematic and moves the story along with a clear (and enjoyable) step. This is not a heavy film, though it might have been. (All you would have needed, Spielberg-like, were some ghastly flashbacks of chained slaves drowning. Instead a map of the ship's voyage is all we need.) The main facts are in any event roughly true and the film very nicely balances the romantic with the political, the human moments (sympathetic coach driver, for example) and conflicts and the much wider social and cultural ones. ('Who let those bloody Quakers in!') As the Q summarised, it makes you proud to be British!

A good cast helps with Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who we would have seen in the Marple Ordeal by Innocence (2007), the rather silly Lost in Austen (2008) and Larry Crowne (2011)) carrying Dido perfectly; with Sarah Gadon (A Royal Night Out), Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Sam Reid, James Norton, Tom Felton and (fleetingly) Matthew Goode.

'Kenwood House' filmed at West Wycombe house (exteriors) and Syon House and Osterly Park House (interiors) by Ben Smithard in Panavision (The Trip, My Week with Marilyn, much TV).

After this, much looking forward to Asante's A United Kingdom, particularly in view of her own white mother-black father background.

And ends on a non-screen kiss, thank you Amma. We thought it was great - chalk up another success for the Brit Girls.

'The Lady Elizabeth Murray'. Artist Johann Zoffany, 1779.