Factual error: Raoul is the Vicomte de Chagny and he gets called that throughout the movie, even during the auction (which shows he didn't change titles when his parents or his brother died, for example). Yet Christine's tombstone calls her a countess when it should have read viscountess - or, even better, vicomtesse.
Sereenie
14th Jan 2005
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
5th Jan 2005
The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
Factual error: It's impossible to receive a phone call on a Bell Canada public phone, as Jill did. (01:25:10)
27th Dec 2004
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Factual error: The masquerade is set on New Year's Eve. We know that because its poster reads "Bal masqué de la Saint-Sylvestre" - St. Sylvester's Day is December 31st and it's common in French to call that day by its saint's name. Firmin (or André) says that it's been "Three months of relief, of delight, of Elysian peace." This means that the events on the opera house's roof took place in late September or early October at most. When Paris gets snow, it's usually in January, the coldest month according to Météo France. With average temperatures of 15 degrees in October, and higher in September, having a good centimetre or two of snow on the rooftop at that time of year is quite implausible.
12th Sep 2004
Van Helsing (2004)
Factual error: Part of the "Wanted" poster in France reads "2,000 francs de récompence." 1) numbers are not written with a comma in French, but with a space (i.e. 2 000); 2) "reward" in French is spelled "récompense," not "récompence." (00:07:35)
29th Aug 2004
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Factual error: Jason's Canadian passport has been issued in 1993 and expires in 2003. Canadian passports at that time were only valid for five years. 10 year Canadian passports were only introduced in 2013.
1st Jul 2004
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Factual error: Considering the brightness of the fusion process, Dr. Octavius has to wear special goggles to be able to see it. Yet no one else in the room is wearing such goggles or seem hurt by watching the whole process, just as at the end of the movie. When welding something, no one can look at the arc that's created, as it would hurt his eyes and burn his retina; presumably, the fusion process would be brighter and more powerful than that, and so should have some kind of damaging effect on everyone's eyesight (except Spider Man's, maybe).
17th Feb 2004
French Kiss (1995)
Factual error: Kate and Charlie live in Toronto. When we first see them in their car, at the beginning of the movie, it has no license plate in the front. In Ontario, cars are required by law to have a plate in the front as well as in the back. While some jurisdictions may be lax in applying their two-plates law, Ontario isn't.
8th Dec 2003
Memento (2000)
Factual error: On the upper right corner of the notes Leonard took about the police report, he wrote down the phone number of a detective (Brian Mezear?). It has 8 digits, intead of the 7 or 10 it should have. (00:57:10)
29th Jul 2003
Before Sunrise (1995)
Factual error: When asked, Julie Delpy says the reason her English is so good is because she spent a summer in LA. Come on. Even after a year, almost no one could manage to speak and pronounce a foreign language that well, let alone in a summer. Her English is very nearly flawless. We know she has spent some time in London before, but if she had stayed there long enough to learn to speak such good English, she would have learned it the way they speak it there, which means she would have a British accent and not an American one. Someone - whether or not she's a native speaker - doesn't change accents after spending a mere three months somewhere.
28th Jul 2003
Mad Love (2001)
Factual error: Philip uses his left hand to sign the decree declaring Joan officially crazy. No one in the 15th century would have used his left hand to write, as 1) it was considered the wrong hand to write with and 2) writing with the left hand would have smudged the fresh ink and rendered any document unreadable.
15th Jul 2003
A Knight's Tale (2001)
Factual error: Worth mentioning, because we see it written on screen: in French, Jocelyn is a man's name -- even its pronounciation is different. For it to be a woman's name, it has to be spelled Jocelyne.
8th May 2003
Ever After (1998)
Factual error: Chocolate started getting known in France in the 17th century, under Louis XIV. Since the movie takes place about a hundred years before that, Marguerite eating it is an anachronism. Even if she somehow got hold of some, at first chocolate was only a drink - it took a while longer before people started eating it.
25th Apr 2003
Left Behind: The Movie (2000)
Factual error: Whenever they show the flagpoles "in front of the United Nations", it's actually those in front of Ottawa's Conference Centre, and the flags are those of the Canadian provinces and territories.
25th Apr 2003
Ever After (1998)
Factual error: Danielle is hardly as common a name in French as in English, and relatively recent (a few hundred years at the most). The following information is taken from "L'histoire de nos prénoms : 2000 ans, 20 000 prénoms", by Léo Journiaux, published in 1999 by Hachette. Ever since the Middle Ages, the clergy had forbidden Frechmen to choose first names other than those of saints. In fact, the Council of Trente turned that clergy rule into law, which means since there was no St. Daniel or Ste. Danielle, Daniel and Danielle could not be bestowed on Catholic babies. You have to wait for the French Revolution (decree from March 24, 1793) for names other than saints' to be allowed in France. In the end, French parents had to wait for 1993 (this is not a typo) to be able to name their child whatever they wanted: before that, each baby's name had first to be approved by the civil registry administration. In fact, in 1970, a man from Dijon was denied the right to call his daughter Vanessa. Now, Danielle in the movie has to be a Catholic, or else Henry (being crown prince) wouldn't have been able to marry her. As a Catholic from the 1500s, she could not possibly have had a name that isn't a saint's name. Thus, calling her Danielle is an anachronism. Here is a rough translation of the "Daniel" entry in the abovementioned book. The entry for Danielle refers us to Daniel, in which is provided all the etymological information. "Daniel--masculine. Name in use in Europe since the 4th century A.D. The Protestant Reform allowed it to spread in Germany, but especially in England. In Scotland, where it's the translation for Donald, it was the 22nd most popular name for males in 1935. In France, it was first authorised by the law instated on April 1st, 1803.
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Suggested correction: When you watch "love never dies" he leaves her because the phantom won the bet, it's implied they got a "divorce" so she is still a countess.
But, in love never dies, it shows Christine dying in the year 1910, (when the whole thing was set) but on her tombstone, it shows that she died in 1913. Since Gustave is ten years old, this would make Christine in her late forties-early fifties when she had him, which is practically impossible. This is why I love LND's music, but the story is just too cheesy and inconsistent to the original for me. Since the original creator of the musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber, has chosen to call it a "stand-alone piece." and not a sequel, I would not use it as a reference for future endeavors with the trio.
Vicomtesse and Comtesse are two completely different titles. For Christine to become a Comtesse, Raoul would have had to become a Comte, but he didn't. He remained a Vicomte, therefore, Christine's tombstone should have read Vicomtesse de Chagny. It doesn't, so this mistake is valid.