Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) - 14 questions

Question: As we know, the magnifying glass in Olaf's tower started the Baudelaire fire. This is the same tool that Klaus uses to burn up the marriage certificate. If the magnifying glass was powerful enough to cause the Baudelaire mansion to burst into flames, which was 37 blocks away, why didn't the stage burst into flames as well?

Answer: Because the magnifying glass had to be focused on the Baudelaire house for a very, very long time. It would have needed to be focused on the porch for long time too, but it was only focused in that direction long enough to burn the paper.

Question: What shape is the mouth of Curdled Cave supposed to represent? It's too odd to be a coincidence, & the camera is focused on it quite a bit.

Answer: If you look carefully, you can see that it is an eye, which is an ongoing theme in the movie. It is mentioned in the audio commentary.

Question: In the beginning, during the Paramount Pictures logo, we softly hear a female voice singing a short, creepy tune. This sounds a lot like something I heard in a black-and-white horror film from the 50's, but I'm not sure which. It sounds like something from the original "House on Haunted Hill" or "13 Ghosts" or one of those other horror "classics." Does anyone know if this was intentional or if it was just a coincidence?

Answer: The voice is just a few notes from the opening song with the littlest elf sung in a really high pitch.

Question: Why did Lemony Snicket tie the book in a rope by the clock?

Answer: This is a theme in the books. It is too dangerous for Snicket to deliver the books himself, so the books get lifted up and delivered via the rope.

Question: In the scene when Sunny is walking around the reptile room and is about to find the Venomous Viper, Lemony Snicket says "witnesses from that day." Because he says "witnesses", is it implying that the children are no longer alive to tell their story?

Answer: Not specifically, in fact, the witnesses could be the children themselves. It is more of a manner of speaking, and if anything it is just leaving the question of whether they are alive open.

Question: In the audio commentary with the director and 'the real Lemony Snicket' on the DVD, who is voicing Lemony Snicket? Is it the actual writer or a stand-in, which is also plausible, seeing as how the whole commentary is like a long joke.

Answer: It's the actual author of the Lemony Snicket books: Daniel Handler.

Question: Where might I be able contact Brad Silberling? I have tried searching the Web and Paramount's website with no success.

Answer: You should be able to contact him care of Paramount. Find the Paramount address, and write that on an envelope. And at the top, simply add "Brad Silberling C/O" (with "C/O" next to "Paramount"). If/when they receive it, they should forward it to him.

Question: Is there any trivia behind the fact that the Baudelaire's home is in Boston, a detail not mentioned in the book?

Answer: No. It's just the town they picked. The only reason they picked a specific location at all was because the house had to be somewhere since they get a letter at the end.

Question: Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, is a born and raised American, he writes books in English. Now why, in this movie, does the letter the children receive in the end contain the text "Groeten Uit Antwerpen" which is Dutch/Belgian? Maybe the answer is obvious if you've read the book, but I haven't.

Answer: The children receive a letter from their parents, who are on vacation in Europe (in this case Antwerp, Belgium - the phrase means "greetings from Antwerp"). They thought it was lost or never sent. It has nothing to do with the author.

Question: How did their Auntie know about all the things that would happen to them? I.e. the fridge could crush them, the cooker could catch fire, the door handle could splinter into 1 million pieces etc?

Answer: It wasn't really a matter of *knowing* that those things would come true. She was a paranoid elderly woman, given to flights of fantasy about awful things that MIGHT happen, however unlikely. The joke is that all those things did occur in exactly the way she described, which is why the kids were so shocked.

Question: How come, Aunt Josephines house collapses, yet reappears later, when we see Count Olaf having to redo the tasks the children faced. Surely they didn't rebuild it! It looks exactly the same, anyway.

Answer: They probably built a simple replicant of the house. They wouldn't rebuild every detail just to punish Olaf, especially since it was just going to fall down again.

Question: When the evil Count Olaf disguises himself at Captain Sham, how did he end up with the peg leg? To get the children's money, did he literally cut off his own leg to be rid of the identifying tattoo on his ankle and also create a more effective disguise?

Answer: Of course not. It's common practice in theater (and movies) to simply tie the lower leg to the thigh and attach a peg at the knee.

Question: I'm still confused about something - what exactly was the whole point of the spy glasses?

Answer: I don't think that spy glasses were explained in the books, but it seems that these are symbols of the fact that they are in VFD, the secret organization we learn about later on in the series. Also, I've read on websites that Uncle Monty was not in VFD, as he did not know anything about Zombies in the Snow, a movie in the books that contains the Sebauld Code.

Question: What year or period is the film (and the books for that matter), set in? Eg. a certain year, or a period, eg. 80's 90's?

Answer: Like the books, it's really up to your imagination. Mr. Poe mentions a Fax machine, and yet all the cars are pre 1970's models. There are car phones, but they are ridiculously old fashioned. Did anyone really ever have reel to reel tape players in their cars? The books give the same aura of occuring at no specific time (old cars and clothes in the illustrations, yet they mention computers and neurology). It's up to you as a viewer and reader to decide.