Continuity mistake: After Alex and Dan go dancing and go back to her apartment, she reaches up to get a door key from the top of an electrical box outside her door. She takes down the key in her right hand and then opens the door with her left hand. The key never goes near the lock or doorknob.
Continuity mistake: In the elevator scene as you look down the shaft from above, the air is crystal clear with no smoke in sight. Then in a few seconds smoke appears near the windows but in the next shot when the elevator stops the smoke is gone. (00:20:10)
Continuity mistake: As a little girl is sitting on the couch with the dog, there is a book to the left of her which is gone in the next shot. (00:02:35)
Continuity mistake: As Michael Douglas busts down Glenn Close's door, you to see from the outside it's not latched. But from the inside it is. (00:41:25)
Continuity mistake: Michael Douglas is going home to Mount Kisco the very very long way down Riverside Drive South. Again Alex's tape hasn't skipped a beat.
Continuity mistake: When Michael Douglas is listening to Alex's tape it's midday when he enters the East River Drive underpass and comes out the sun has clearly set. Alex's tape doesn't skip a beat. (01:17:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Beth is desperately trying to find Ellen, she approaches a stopped Chevrolet Caprice wagon and rear ends it. When the camera switches to an interior shot of Beth's vehicle during the collision, the vehicle in front has changed to a Ford LTD wagon.
Continuity mistake: While eating together, Alex tells Dan that she stood up her date, and raises her hand. From the opposite angle it's lowered.
Continuity mistake: When Dan and Alex are under the rain, a black man in a gabardine passes by Dan, and a frame later passes by Alex, in the opposite direction.
Continuity mistake: Dan is having a drink with Alex and he talks about his parents' divorce. His glass swaps from being on the table to in his hand between shots.
Continuity mistake: After Glen Close kicks Michael Douglas out of her apartment he's standing next to her bicycle holding his stuff. It can be assumed that he put the stuff on the bicycle seat because in the next shot his hands and the handlebars are empty. But later as we see him getting ready to leave again his stuff is the on handlebars. (00:34:35 - 00:37:10)
Continuity mistake: When the little girl is playing in the back yard outside the rabbit cage it's winter, not a leaf in the tree she is under. In the very next shot as they get into their car all shrubs and trees in this shot have their leaves. (01:23:10)
Continuity mistake: When Glenn Close calls Michael Douglas in the middle of the night, his clock radio reads 2:13. In the next shot, without him touching it, the clock is dimmer and has been moved so we can't see the new time. Then about a minute later, the clock radio reads 2:20.
Continuity mistake: In the famous bathtub scenes there's a close-up of Alex's feet with blood dripping on her right foot. Later when we see her in the tub the blood is in a different spot on her foot. (01:51:40 - 01:53:15)
Continuity mistake: When the phone rings as Beth paints, Beth puts her roller in the tray and goes to answer the phone. When she returns the roller is in a different position than it was before.
Continuity mistake: When Michael Douglas puts on his headphones to listen to the tape in his den, he puts the headphone with the cord on his left ear. When his wife startles him the cord is on his right ear.
Chosen answer: With questions such as this, one can either speculate, or one can go directly to the source. So, using IMDb, I looked up the names of the crew on "Fatal Attraction." The costume designer is listed as Ellen Mirojnick. The set decoration was the responsibility of George DeTittas, Sr. I found Ellen Mirojnick on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ellenmirojnick/posts/263462080524551?comment_id=263621453841947&offset=0&total_comments=2¬if_t=feed_comment), and posed the question to her. This was the reply she gave: " (I)n our process there is always a purpose for a palette to tell a story dramatically. I chose white for her character because white is powerful and although not essentially a "color" it reflects all other colors, which would in turn reflect where we were in the story. I thought through her silhouettes and use of shades of whites, it would reflect her mood and not give away the demon she kept hidden. WHITE is powerful... As she was!" I have not yet been able to track down Mr. DeTittas for comment. But I have posed the additional question to Ms. Mirojnick regarding whether the color palette motif was a decision shared by different departments on the film. Ms. Mironjnick added the following comments: "she wears white to discuise (sic) her darkness, that somehow is revealed in certain places.. white is all things combined .. it radiatesits (sic) the confusion as if she was in an asylum, but her own."
Michael Albert