Question: According to the Baroness, Henry was planning to choose Marguerite as his bride before Danielle arrived at the ball. If it's true, why does he almost marry the Spanish princess instead of Marguerite?
Answer: The Baroness says, "I have it on good authority," about Henry almost choosing Marguerite. Her source could be wrong, but if it's true, he was probably so upset about Danielle deceiving him that he wanted nothing to do with anyone from her home anymore. Especially if Marguerite planned to bring Danielle and other servants to the palace with her. Danielle might have hoped to stay at her father's property and manage the place herself, but Marguerite could probably arrange for her to work in the palace.
Answer: Henry was to be betrothed to Princess Gabriella of Spain, though he did not love her. When Henry's father said he could choose his own bride, the Baroness then lied to Danielle, saying the Prince intended to choose Marguerite, and also falsely told the Prince that Danielle was already engaged, all to put Marguerite into a prominent position to be chosen. After discovering the Baroness' deception, Henry would not have chosen Marguerite. Henry would still have married Princess Gabriella, but after learning she loved another, he freed her from their engagement. He later chose Danielle.
No offence, but this is not answering the question. You're re-hashing half the plot.
Question: Throughout the entire movie after her father dies, she's referred to as a peasant. Even says she's 'but a peasant', a servant. Her father was a Baron, how her stepmother became a Baroness. Her mother was a Countess. A parent dying doesn't strip the child of noble status. The daughter of even a dead baron is not a peasant. How is this not a serious plot error that completely derails the whole movie?
Answer: Danielle's father was not a baron, he was just a wealthy landowner. Her stepmother was a baroness from her previous marriage. When Danielle calls herself "Comtesse Nicole de Lancret" (her mother's name), she was lying and only pretending to be a noblewoman. Her mother was never a countess.
Yes. She married down because Auguste had money and she was broke.
Yes. In this time period, a woman like the Baroness would not have many options. She apparently had no wealth from her first marriage, and she had two children. Many wealthy, available men could easily arrange marriages with younger women, from wealthier families, who had no children.
Corrected entry: After Prince Henry helps Da Vinci retrieve his painting (assumed to be the Mona Lisa), Da Vinci unfurls what can not possibly be the Mona Lisa. The real painting, in the Louvre, is approximately a foot and a half tall; whereas the painting in the movie is easily twice that size.
Correction: The real Mona Lisa is 30" tall x 20 7/8" wide so this reasoning is incorrect. Of course, the real one is on wood and so couldn't be rolled up, but the size is correct.
There were many mona Lisas.
Question: When the Evil Stepmother wakes up Danielle (who is hungover, from being with Henry and the gypsies the night before), and asks Jacqueline to boil water, why? And what was done with it? Nothing was ever explained about the boiling water. I don't believe Evil Stepmother had Jacqueline boil water to make their breakfast with. She wouldn't have relented that easily. The very next scene has Danielle getting water from the well, looking fine.
Answer: Near the beginning of the movie after Danielle comes back from whipping apples at Henry, the stepmother and sisters are having breakfast. At the beginning of the scene Marguerite says, "I wanted one four minute egg, not four one minute eggs and where in GOD'S NAME IS OUR BREAD!" Therefore the boiling water was probably to make hard boiled eggs for their breakfast.
Answer: I think the boiling water part was to actually boil water for the breakfast.
Answer: Disagree. The Stepmother says it, in too resolutely a manner as if she has a specific purpose for the boiling water. As if it will be used as a punishment on Danielle, somehow. Btw, it can't be related to the whipping, either, as that doesn't happen till a few scenes later. Script error?
Probably not a script error but something explaining this may have been edited out post-filming. It's typical in movies that filmed scenes are later deleted entirely or partially edited during post-production for a variety of reasons-to cut down the film's running time, speed up the action, etc. As a result, it often leaves small plot inconsistencies.
Corrected entry: Several times, Danielle is referred to as a 'Commoner' (non-nobility). She even calls herself this. But her father and mother were nobility thus, so is Danielle.
Correction: Danielle's father, while wealthy, was not of the noble class. This point is shown in Danielle's and servant's excitement of her father bringing home a Baroness and how impressed Danielle was with their table manners. A Baron/Baroness is the lowest noble title, so their excitement of a woman of equal or lower social stature would seem exaggerated. Also, if the de Barbaracs were nobility, Danielle would be known to other nobles as a courtier and as her father's only living descendant and heir. The Baroness would not be able to relegate Danielle to a servant - in her own house no less! And at the ball, Danielle would have corrected the Baroness by mentioning her own noble blood.
Thanks. Makes more sense now. Then why would the Baroness marry someone beneath her station? And since she did, would that not demote/strip her of her Baroness title, then? Making HER a Commoner, also, then? And unable to order Danielle about?
She seems to have married Auguste for his money, as she seems to have no income of her own, demonstrated by her selling the castle's belongings to fund her schemes.
When it comes to nobility it's actually hard to lose titles. She would remain a baroness unless she married someone of higher rank or was stripped by royals.
According to the way it is written about peers titles, if the widow remarried then she forfeits her title and follows her new husband, therefore IF she is currently Baroness then that stands to reason it came from Auguste and that would make Danielle nobility and not a commoner.
While I mostly agree with your take on this you stated "Also, if the de Barbaracs were nobility, Danielle would be known to other nobles as a courtier and as her father's only living descendant and heir." however, I don't believe this to be a valid argument. Her father loved her very much and kept her close since he did not have a wife and Danielle did not have a mother so wouldnt have necessarily been trained in the ways of the court. Also, with the disdain her step-mother had for her, there was no way, she would have trained her. I do however agree that Daniele was from the union of 2 wealthy families but have found no proof that she was of noble blood.
Danielle's mother was a comtesse, fr. Countess, French titles were passed via heredity, if available descendants were present. Only one country in Europe, Poland, stopped this for a time prior to 1,000 AD. Titles can be endowed to a partner in marriage, never stripped that I can find. In the case of a commoner being granted a title, the king or queen could approve the title, money always helped. Dumas gives examples in his books. Stripping property very seldom deleted the title as it was in the blood.
Danielle's mother was not a comtesse. Note that the baroness mocks Danielle's claim that her mother was one.
How could that be though if her mother was a Countess? A Countess is of higher rank than an Baroness.
Correction: Actually, we don't know that Danielle's mother was a comtesse. Danielle uses her mother's name, yes, but she could have just added the comtesse part since she was, at that point, pretending to be a courtier.
At the end, the stepmother says, "after all the insidious jokes, you turned your mother into a comtesse" so that shows that she used her mother's name and turned her into a courtier.
Danielle's father was a merchant, thus a commoner in French society but a wealthy commoner.
Correction: The only thing that stands out to me is at the end the Queen turns to the stepmother and asked did she lie to them and the stepmother does not say no. So that would have to mean Danielle is of some position.
The Baroness lied to the Queen when she, essentially, corroborated the rumor that Danielle was a courtier named Comtesse Nicole de Lancret. She said "why yes, and she's staying with us as a matter of fact."
Actually, the Baroness lied to the Queen about Danielle being engaged to a Belgian.
She also lied when they pretended to find the necklace that the queen dropped. The mother had one of the guards steal it.
Corrected entry: When the prince saves the painting, it turns out to be the Mona Lisa. But this story takes place around 1516 or later because Leonardo da Vinci is in France. The Mona Lisa was painted in 1502, at least 14 years before this event.
Correction: First, Leonardo didn't start the Mona Lisa until 1503 and it took him several years to actually finish it. Second, many great masters did more than one version so it is not impossible that this is an unknown copy. Third, just because LdV was not working for the King of France until 1516 doesn't mean that he couldn't have visited France at an earlier date (especially in this fictional universe).
Leonardo actually used to carry this painting with him a lot. Which added to the mystery of the Mona Lisa.
The painting is actually a reference to the study La Scapigliata. La Scapigliata is done in oils, umber and white lead in monochrome. Whereas the Mona Lisa is a finished work.
The Mona Lisa was painted on wood, not canvas.
Correction: It isn't the Mona Lisa, at least not the famous version. The version in the Louvre is painted on wood, not canvas.
Answer: Rodmilla is an untrustworthy source of information. Rodmilla arrogantly tells Danielle, "I have it on good authority that before your rather embarrassing debut, the prince was about to choose Marguerite to be his bride." I believe Rodmilla is lying to Danielle only to further torment her. Rodmilla plunges the figurative knife into Danielle by declaring her a "pebble in her shoe" step-daughter, before she's taken away by the repulsive Le Pieu. When Henry made the deal with his father, he was given the choice of finding "love" or to marry Spain's Princess due to the marriage treaty. Right before the ball, Henry in despair, thinks he failed at finding love, and King Francis tells him it may have been unfair to put so much pressure on him about Spain's marriage contract. Francis says, "We don't have to announce anything tonight," and Henry replies, "I've made my decision." Their conversation implies Henry agreed to marry the Princess of Spain, and the announcement was to be made at the ball.
Super Grover ★