Question: When the scene with the song "Why So Silent" takes place, how long has it been since anyone last saw/heard from the Phantom?
Answer: It is actually six months. Masquerade is shown as "6 months later, " and the lyrics, if you look at them, say "six months of relief, of delight..."
In the movie, it's three months. In the Broadway production, it's six months.
Answer: As said in Masquerade, "Three months of relief, of delight, of Elysian peace."
Question: This has bothered me since the first time I saw Love Never Dies. The dates for Christine's death don't line up, so I'm hoping for some insight as to why. On Christine's grave stone in Phantom, the dates 1854-1917 are given. Making her about 63 when she dies. However, if it's 1880 at the time she sings "think of me" that makes her 16... and then in Love Never Dies, her and Eric are saying how it's been "10 long years." Making her 26. But then she's shot and presumably dies, in 1890 rather than 27 years later in 1917. Even if there's a couple years in between the ending of this movie and the point that Christine last sees the phantom, that is a lot of time to fill up! So... am I missing something? Or is this a big plot hole?
Answer: The movie was produced in (2004) six years before the debut of Love Never Dies. I suggest watching the stage production as that better matches up with the sequel (but still has plot holes). The movie, however, added a few bits, not in the stage production which I presume Webber based Love Never Dies off. However, in my opinion, Webber just lost all common sense in the making of Love Never Dies so it is easier to think of it as it's own entity rather than a sequel to Phantom.
I found this site after recently seeing Love Never Dies, and searching for answers on the plot of that musical. I guess I'm just gonna go with your statement "Webber just lost all common sense in the making of Love Never Dies." The music was great, the sets were classic Lloyd Webber spectacle...but the plot just made no damn sense.
I agree with your question and came across this site to find an answer to this question. I'm confused as well. But it makes sense that Webber forgot the details of Phantom of the Opera and the grave stone. Also, maybe because Love Never Dies is more so an alternate ending for Phantom and Christine versus the accuracy.
Question: At the Masquerade Ball, why is Raoul wearing the same jacket twice, with one arm out?
Answer: Consider that the event is a masquerade ball, where everyone's attire is meant to be intricate to the point of being "overdesigned." Look carefully. In Raoul's case, he is wearing a dark navy blue, uniform style form-fitting jacket with horizontal gold braiding flanked by gold buttons, shoulder epaulets and a standing collar. What you see draping his left side is a matching short jacket over the shoulder, which is emblematic of a classic hero in art and literature. The short jacket is sewn on as a design element, of course - not just draped there, as it would fall. So one arm isn't exactly "out." You see the sleeve and the braiding of the short draped jacket dangling behind him when he and Christine are dancing. There is also a shirt underneath it all with more of the same gold braiding design.
Question: In the movie and in most of the live shows Christine is brunette but I have heard that in the original book she is blonde. Is that true and if so, do you know where in the book they say it?
Answer: In the English translation I've read (I have not read the original French version); in chapter V, The Enchanted Violin, when the old man is telling the story, it reads "Raoul looked at Christine's blue eyes and golden hair". It should be noted that Christine is Swedish and black hair is uncommon among the Swedes.
Question: Is it me or is there a reason why madame Giry has a french accent whereas her daughter Meg has an English one? Considering they live in France shouldn't Meg's accent have been french too?
Answer: Mme Giry's accent is not meant to be "French" per se. The various accents used in the movie can be thought of as reflecting of the various accents one would encounter in such a cosmopolitan place as a late-1800s Paris Opera house, with people coming from all over France (yes, there are various French accents like there are various English ones) and Europe. Mme Giry and Meg's accents being different only shows that Mme Giry didn't grown up in the same place where she raised Meg. The same thing happens nowadays with immigrants' families, where parents speak with a different accent than their children's.
Question: One of the Trivia entries for Phantom tells of a reference to Cats in "Masquerade." Well, I have yet to find it. Can someone be more specific about where it is, or perhaps include a time code? And are the actors really dressed like cats from the show, or do they only show a vague resemblance?
Answer: The scene is at about 01:18:44. It's when they sing "FACES! Drink it up, drink it in..." They are dressed like cats, but not the cats from the show, and they merely strike a pose similar to a promotional poster of the show.
Question: I know the story about how Andrew Lloyd Webber had planned to adapt his original musical to film with Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford in their original roles, but then Webber and Brightman divorced and things never panned out. But now after all these years, why didn't Joel Shumacher contact Sarah Brightman and/or Michael Crawford to do the film? It seems they were meant to play the leads. If I do recall, Michael Crawford had been contacted but declined. Can somebody shed some light?
Question: How old is the Phantom supposed to be? When we are shown his childhood, he looks as though he should be the same age as Madame Giry, but he only looks like being in his 20s-30s.
Answer: In the Susan Kay book, there is a quote in which the Phantom says that he is "old enough to be Christine's father", which would make sense, given that Mme. Giry is like a mother to her, and Mme. Giry and the Phantom seem to be close in age. Joel Schumacher wanted to go with a "younger, sexier" cast, but the age difference still seems to work - Emmy Rossum (Christine) was seventeen at the time of filming, while Gerard Butler (Phantom) was about thirty-four.
Question: At the beginning of the movie, during the auction, when the chandelier rises, the seats in the opera house are dusty. At the end of the movie, it is seen that the seats burn when the chandelier falls. Is this a mistake, or did they rebuild the opera house after the accident?
Answer: Considering the fact that nearly 50 years have passed between both sets of events, it is conceivable that the Opera House could have been rebuilt, at least partially, at some point before being abandoned for good.
Question: How did the Phantom always know where Christine was?
Answer: The Phantom followed Christine almost constantly, always staying hidden in the shadows, nooks and crannies so as to not be detected. She was his obsession. Stealth was his expertise.
Question: Is there any explanation in the book as to why the Phantom is deformed? I've heard something about acid, but I don't know if that's correct.
Answer: Although there are myths and rumours as to the origins of the Phantom's deformity (acid, fires, etc.), it is simply a birth defect. In the novel, the birth defect covered his whole face. The idea of the distortion covering half his face for the musical originated from photographs of World War II soldiers covering half of their badly injured faces. For the film version, makeup artist Jenny Shircore based the Phantom's disfigurement on a medical condition she had seen.
The half face design was actually created to better allow for singing, as a full face mask wouldn't be suitable.
Question: I just wanted to know, in the prima dona song the lyrics say something like "a chorus girl who's gone and slept with her patron". Are they just making an assumption that they slept together or did they actually do it because in this point of the film she had only just come back from the phantom's lair and had only been in the same room as him in one scene.
Question: The first time Christine goes to the Phantom's lair, why does she pass out when she sees herself with a wedding dress? At least it looks like one.
Chosen answer: I believe it was the shock of seeing her exact likeness in a wedding dress, and the first overwhelming realization of the Phantom's obsession with her. That, in combination with the dank, dark and humid environment, a lifetime of heavily corseted dresses, and a wan and frail constitution, all conspired to Christine's loss of consciousness.
Question: Why did the Phantom always ask for Box 5 to be open for him? I know he wanted to watch the play from it, but if someone wanted to find him (after the trouble he causes to make Christine the star of the plays), they would know exactly where to look for him during any play.
Answer: In Gaston Leroux's novel, box 5 has in its wall a secret passageway with special acoustic properties that allows him to watch shows without being seen while remaining hidden. That is why he picked that box and no one ever sees him in it. Legend even has it that a column in box 5 of the actual Opéra Garnier rings hollow when you knock on it.
Question: I'm very confused about the opening scene with Raoul and Madame (Meg?) Giry at the auction. Which one is it? Meg or Madame Giry? At one point on the corrections page for this movie it says that it is indeed Meg, yet on the questions page it says that it is Madame Giry. Is there any absolute idea to who it is?
Answer: This keeps going back and forth with arguments on both sides. I'll present them both and readers can make up their own minds! 1. It is Madame Giry. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joel Schumacher said it was her. If you look really closely you can see the appearance is the same, just wrinkled. Besides, Raoul and Meg barely interacted so to make it that Madame Giry and Raoul are seeing each other again makes it more powerful. 2. It is Meg because Madame Giry would be dead, considering the fact that she and the Phantom were about the same age. Considering the fact that Meg and Christine were the best-est of friends, she would know why Raoul was bidding higher than Meg was. The monkey was yet another symbol of love between the Phantom and Christine and the monkey was a dear artifact for Raoul and Christine. Since Raoul was older during that scene, so would be Meg, when, they too, were about the same age.
Question: The Phantom refers to himself as Christine's "angel of music" in the song called "The Mirror". How did he know that Christine thought her father would send her an angel? Did he know her father?
Answer: As shown in the movie, Christine has spent time praying in the chapel as a child. It would not be unexpected for a child of such a young age to literally speak to her dead father in such situations, mentioning his promise in the process, thus allowing the Phantom to hear about it. In the book, though, it is understood that Mr. Daaé and the Phantom knew each other. By sending his daughter to the Opéra populaire after his death, he might have wanted the Phantom to look over her.
Question: This might be an irrelevant question, because I can't remember if this happened in the movie or not, but in the book the Phantom asks Madame Giry for a foot stool - why did he want one?
Chosen answer: The Phantom's frequent request for a footstool in box 5, which he demanded be left empty - not sold to patrons, does come from the book (chapter 4, pages 11-14), and is not mentioned in the movie. It's never made quite clear precisely the purpose of the footstool. According to Mme. Giry, "I brought the footstool. Of course, it wasn't for himself he wanted it, but for his lady! But I never heard her nor saw her." She did find evidence of her, however. One night, a lady's fan was left behind. She also mentioned that the Phantom would leave a gratuity for her services. There is never a clear identity given of "his lady." I presume it may have been used for a young Christine Daae to stand on, so she could better see over the rail of the box to the Opera on stage below when Erik brought her. But if that's true, it is still unclear why nobody ever saw her, and why she had never seen the Phantom.
Question: Does anyone think that Meg, Madame Gerty's daughter is a love child with the Phantom?
Answer: It is conceivable, I suppose, but extremely unlikely. The role of Madame Giry (the correct spelling) in the opera house, and her relationship to Erik (the Phantom) and Christine Daae differ somewhat between the book, the stage musical, and the 2004 film. But never is a romantic connection between Madame Giry and Erik, past or present, even implied. She functions more as a knowledgeable intermediary and is more or less employed by the Phantom to represent his interests to the Opera House administration, even though she had never seen him, but had only heard his voice. Also, if Meg were his daughter, it wouldn't make sense, given his personality, that Erik would have absolutely no apparent relationship with her. Further, given the dramatic payoff that could be added to the story by revealing that Meg is the Phantom's love child, it is all but inconceivable that such a relationship would be salient in the mind of author Gaston Leroux, but that he would never make it explicit. Ultimately, anything is possible. But in the absence of any evidence to support the theory, I would say it's a pretty clear bet that Meg Giry has no blood relationship to the Phantom.
The theory of Meg being the Phantom's daughter would not be at all an explanation as to why he is not interested in her as he is with Christine. This would only make sense if you were implying that he was a pedophile which I can tell you that he most likely is not because in the short song ("I have brought you to the seat of sweet music's thrown...") between 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'Music of the Night' he says "You have come here for one purpose and one alone. Since the moment I first heard you sing, I have needed you with me to serve me, to sing..." This shows that he brought Christine to his lair because of his attraction to Christine and her talent or whatever (but absolutely not because he is attracted to young girls), the talent which Meg lacks is shown due to her mother's reaction/attitude/actions when Christine goes up to sing 'Think of Me' - in the movie, she looks at Meg and touches her hair, giving her that look of disappointment on the DL; in the theater version, after the performance, she scolds Meg (and the other ballerinas), speaking to her as if she were somewhat unworthy or not as good as Christine. I hate to ever use Love never Dies references to back up my statements when discussing tpoto, but I am sure that Madame Giry would not allow Meg to have affection towards the Phantom neither seek equivalent attention from the Phantom as he gave Christine if you understand what I'm saying. Like Meg was crazy obsessed with winning the Phantom's attention.
Answer: Actually it says three months, I'm watching it right now.