Corrected entry: At the beginning when they rehearsing for Hannibal, André suddenly has a pair of handcuffs around his neck. In a far shot they are not there, but then in a closer shot they are. In the next far shot, they are gone again.
Corrected entry: During the 'The Point of no Return', the Phantom sings 'what sweet seduction lies before us' while running his hand down Christine's arm. Watch as he reaches her bracelet-it comes off in his hand, then in the next shot it is done up again.
Correction: If you look at her bracelet again in the scene just as she is about to remove the Phantom's mask, you'll see that it has a dangling part coming off it, and this is what fell when the Phantom ran his hand down her arm; it didn't come off.
Corrected entry: During the scene where the opera of Don Juan is taking place, Christine's dress continuously changes position. First it is on her shoulder, then it is off her shoulder, then back on again. This happens several times. (01:45:00 - 01:47:05)
Correction: The sleeves do slip, but we see them slip sometimes and sometimes we see her pull them back up. This was deliberate and meant to show her uncertainty.
Corrected entry: As Meg enters the secret passageway, the camera zooms in on Christine's abandoned rose on the floor in front of the mirror. How did it get there? Christine was empty-handed when she approached the mirror.
Corrected entry: As much as I hate to say it, there are some dubbing faults in this film. Probably the worst one is during the Phantom's last song to Christine, the actor mimes the word to the end of the note, however it sounds very like the voice singing in the studio took a breath before the actor finished the note on screen.
Correction: This doesn't happen. The Phantom stops singing, but leaves his mouth open because he is sobbing. That's what the breathing sound is.
Corrected entry: As she walks about the Phantom's lair, Christine's robe opens revealing the tops of her stockings, which appear to actually be hold-ups without a garter belt or suspenders to attach them to her corset. These would not have been invented in 1870.
Correction: These would have been attached to the corset with a garter, but she didn't have time to put on the suspenders before the Phantom interrupted her.
Corrected entry: Firmin's lips go wild and nowhere near the right words just before Raoul comes in with "where is she?"
Correction: I've now seen this many times and have not seen this take place. I believe his next line is "you mean Carlotta?" and it matches perfectly.
Corrected entry: In the scene near the end, the Phantom is singing to Christine in front of the model of her (wax figure?). He puts the veil on her, and it shows that she's wearing it on the shot of her. In the next shot when it switches to him, you can see her hair, but she's not wearing the veil. Then the camera switches back to her, and she's wearing it again.
Correction: Christine is still wearing the veil. We can only see the side of her hair, which the veil has been shown not to cover.
Corrected entry: On the roof top scene where Christine is talking to Raoul she is wearing dark lipstick but just before they kiss it disappears.
Correction: If you look again, the lipstick is still there. It went away after they kissed, understandably because they didn't have "kiss proof" lipstick in the 1800s.
Corrected entry: The size of the deformity on the Phantom's face is very inconsistent. Sometimes we see him with a small face mask that leaves almost his entire forehead exposed, but when he is unmasked at the end it reveals a deformity outside the area the black mask covered - meaning at least some of it would have been visible before.
Correction: It is commonly accepted that the part of his deformity that isn't covered by the mask is covered with make up. His deformity is too large to completely cover with make up all the time so what he can't cover with a mask he uses make up.
Corrected entry: In Il Muto, right after Carlotta has fled the stage because of her voice, André says that they will now perform the ballet from Act III. How were the dancers able to change into their costumes that fast, they had only been in the first 5 minutes of Act I, so it's not as though they were already in costume. Even Meg Giry has changed costumes, and she was in the first scene.
Correction: Having performed in many ballets, I know this is possible in two ways: (1)Once a scene is finished, performers often get into their next costume right away in order to avoid any problems or delays later on, or (2) a "quick change", aided by backstage personnel, which enables performers to get into a completely different costume in an extremely short period of time if necessary.
Corrected entry: When the Phantom wears his white mask you can see his entire upper lip and it is not deformed. Yet when he is seen unmasked the right side of his upper lip is a bit deformed as well, certainly not as perfectly fine as it was when he wore his white mask.
Correction: It is commonly accepted that the Phantom wears makeup to cover any deformity that his mask does not. That also explains why his eye seems fine through the mask when it is not. It is very probable that he could not cover his entire deformity, especially the skin condition, and that is why he still wore the mask.
Corrected entry: As the two new owners arrive at the opera house you can see in the background Paris. The view is from the Opera Garnier towards the Seine river (the south). We see in the far background a hill with a monument on top which never existed on the south side of Paris, and we also see that the opera is itself on top of a hill (because of the sort of balcony with street lights). In real life, facing south of the Opera, everything is totally flat. It seems that they relocated the opera house towards Montmartre for the movie. Also, at the very very beginning you see a postcard like picture of the opera house, behind you also see bridges. From the point of view of the picture taken (facing north, slightly west) the Seine river can not be on the postcard (as mentioned the Seine is south of the Opera). (00:05:30)
Correction: The movie doesn't take place at the Opéra Garnier, but at the fictional "Opéra populaire" (you can see its name at various times on the building, posters, etc.). It can be located anywhere the movie makers want it to be.
Corrected entry: There is a ten-to-fifteen year difference between Raoul and Madame Giry's ages, yet in the "future" scenes, Patrick Wilson and Miranda Richardson have been aged the same amount. She should look much older than him.
Correction: According to "The Phantom of the Opera Companion" book, the old lady indeed is Madame Giry: in spite of her being 15 years older than Raoul, she looks this way because she aged better thanks to her good health due to her being a dancer for so long. Raoul didn't have such good health, plus was ravaged by Christine's death two years before.
Corrected entry: Throughout the entire movie, various occurrences are seen of electrical lighting in the Opera Populaire. For example, the lamp Madame Giry turns on just before she begins to tell the story of how she rescued the Phantom. Phantom of the Opera is supposed to take place in the 1870. However, Edison did not first invent the light bulb until 1879. Hence, the electric lights would have been impossible.
Correction: In the case of Mme. Giry turning on the light, she's turning up the gas in the lamp, making it burn brighter.
Corrected entry: Raoul left the Opera House not long after Christine did, and he knew where she was going. Despite the speed at which he was riding his horse, it takes him a very long time to get to the cemetery.
Correction: It's snowing, so the ground is frozen. He's on horseback. She's in a carriage. The carriage will have better adherance to the road than horseshoes would, so Raoul would have to go slower. If he didn't, then his horse could have slipped and he would have fallen down, thus slowing him down.
Corrected entry: While conducting the pit orchestra on screen during the opening bars of "Don Juan", the conductor gives a downbeat which indicates to all musicians the first beat of a bar. However, the music heard on the movie at the time of the downbeat is actually the 2nd beat of the bar.
Correction: There could have been a rest on the first beat of the bar in question, in which case the conductor would give the orchestra the first downbeat and they would not begin playing until the second beat.
Corrected entry: When Raoul fell in the water and the grate started to come down on him, there should have been a hole his size or bigger in the grate. Otherwise, when he had fallen through the trap door, he would have landed on the grate and been standing on it.
Correction: It is safe to assume that there is a chute which Raoul falls into and slides down before falling into the water. The chute opens under the grate. If there was not a chute, any intruder would simply fall onto the stairs below as they are spiral stairs.
Corrected entry: When the Phantom is tying Raoul up attempting to strangle him, he ties ropes around the grille above Raoul's head. However, on the longer shot, the ropes around the grille appear to be much higher up than a person could reach.
Correction: The phantom feeds the the rope through the grate, you can see him only put it about two or so feet above Raoul's head.
Corrected entry: The dressing room that the Phantom removes Christine from through the mirror is Carlotta's dressing room, as can be seen by the posters in the background. Surely the Phantom has no interest in spying on Carlotta?
Correction: The Phantom built that secret door long before he ever met Christine or Carlotta.
Correction: While it's true we don't actually see one of the dancers put the chain around Andre's neck, it can be assumed one of the dancers does so during the time they were all packed close in front of him. During the far shot, the chain is indeed still there, it's just hard to see because he is wearing a dark coat and the chain is dark. When the song is completely finished and all the dancers come up from their final poses, we see one of the girls unwrapping the chain from Andre's neck.