Corrected entry: When Prince Henry goes to Danielle's house after freeing his arranged bride, no one bows down to him. Some people stop and stare at him as he runs, but no one bows to him.
Corrected entry: Nicole is said to be engaged to "a Belgian," but Belgium did not exist until 1830. The political regions at the time of the story (early 1500s) would have been Flanders, Brabant and Liège.
Correction: True, but the PEOPLE Belgians existed. They were the descendants of the Celtic tribes in the area, who had since the Roman era been known under the common monicker "Belgae". Julius Caesar even refers to them in his memoirs, calling them the bravest of the three Gallic tribes.
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.
Corrected entry: At the end when the bad stepsister gets punched in the eye by Drew Barrymore, she gets a really black eye. A couple days later at the ball, she is totally clear of any bruises.
Correction: At the time, leeches were widely used, and disgusting though it may seem, they'd help a black eye by sucking up subcutaneous blood - any residual colouring could be covered by makeup.
Corrected entry: Towards the end when the stepsister and stepmother find out about Danielle becoming the princess, the King asks if anyone will vouch for the stepmother. When Danielle comes onstage to vouch for her, she is wearing no eye makeup, however, later in that same scene, she is. (01:52:40)
Correction: When Danielle walks into the throne room (not "onstage"), her eye make-up is consistent if by "later in that same scene" you're referring to the following shots, as she stands beside her stepmother. Just note that when she is looking straight ahead her golden colored eyeshadow is not as visible on her eyelids, as it is when she is glancing downward at her stepmother. If, however, when you say "later in that same scene" you're referring to when Leonardo da Vinci presents the painting, that is not the same scene - it is later in the day. Either way, there is no mistake.
Corrected entry: When Danielle is abducted and she is making her escape, she picks up a sword and claims to be a good swordsman, as her father taught her to use a sword. Her father died when she was eight. How much instruction could she have had by age eight?
Correction: She was bluffing to scare Pierre Le Pieu into thinking that she could really kill him. It seems to have worked.
Correction: Some children are taught the style of swordsmanship at the early age of 5, may not be using pointed but wooden swords to educate the proper stance. Also, Danielle did see the same way Henry fought during the scene with the gypsies, short dagger and long sword.
Corrected entry: Wide Screen version only (the bottom is cut off in the Full Screen version): When we see the stepmother for the first time getting out of the coach, she steps into the bottom of her dress. For a split second you can see her struggle to reach the ground before they change camera angles.
Correction: Given the length of the dresses worn at that time, it would not be uncommon for any woman to step on her dress or to have a problem getting out of her carriage, it is perfectly realistic.
Corrected entry: In the scene at the ball, the stepmother rips Danielle's right wing off the dress. When you see her running out of the castle, leaving her slipper behind, she has the right wing, but not the left one.
Correction: When Danielle trips and falls, the remaining wing flops over to the right side. If you watch carefully, you can see the wing flopping back over to the left side when she stands up.
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: 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.
Corrected entry: In a dinner scene early on in the film, Drew is serving and somehow knocks over a cup - it makes a plastic sound as it clatters down. This movie is set BP (before plastic). And how come they have English accents if they're in France?
Correction: In the time period the film is set there was widespread use of bone cups which were very light weight and of similar consistency to plastic.
Correction: They have English accents because they are speaking in English.
Corrected entry: In the very last moments of the very last scene, the carriage moves toward the narrow bridge leaving the castle and the back right wheel bumps the edge of the bridge.
Correction: So, there's nothing wrong with that, this is not a mistake.
Corrected entry: The French cannot pronounce the English 'H' sound. Therefore, 'Henry' should be pronounce 'Enry' not 'Henry' as all the characters do.
Correction: The movie's shot in English; there's no reason why everything should be pronounced differently. And if they wanted the movie to look more French, they would have called the prince Henri, and not Henry, and used the proper French pronounciation. Here is not the case.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Prince Henry chases the thief with DaVinci's painting, both of them fall off off a cliff into a lake. Halfway through the fall, the thief disappears, and only Henry falls into the lake. (No second splash is heard, either).
Correction: The prince's cape blocks the view of the other guy. You can see it just after he falls into the lake.
Corrected entry: At the ceremony of his wedding to the sobbing Spanish Princess, Prince Henry addresses her as 'Madame,' a title used in French for married women, rather than 'Mademoiselle,' which would have applied in her case.
Correction: This is technically true, but there is an exception: royal princesses could be called Madame, out of respect and to avoid putting them on the same level as other girls at court. For example, Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI's daughter was called 'Madame Royale', and not Mademoiselle, even as a child.
I haven't watched the captions to see how it's written, but it could also be "ma dame" (i.e. an attempt at "my lady"). The way it's enunciated, it does almost sound like that's what they're going for.
Corrected entry: When Danielle is asking for her freedom and has a sword and dagger held to the man, how could she have taken the key from him without putting the sword down first. If she did put one of them down, he could have easily taken control.
Correction: She could have easily forced the man to unlock the chains.
Correction: Pierre never wanted her as a prisoner, but as a companion. I think credibly threatening to kill him made the point to him that she would probably kill him long before she accepted that role. He may also have intended to pursue some legal recourse once his personal safety was assured.
Corrected entry: In the attic Jacqueline helps Danielle with the wounds on her back. Have a look at the roof: We seem to have more than one sun, otherwise these sunbeams would be parallel.
Correction: The roof has sloping sides, so the sunlight would come in from both sides and shine through at different angles.
Corrected entry: When Prince Henry falls from the cliff with the gypsy, only Henry hits the water - the gypsy disappears.
Correction: If you go frame by frame, both Henry and the gypsy hit the water. The gypsy is harder to spot because of all the leaves and the fact that his clothing causes him to blend in, but he is there. He can be seen swimming away while Henry is swimming toward the painting.
Corrected entry: In the beginning, the evil stepsister has brown eyes, but when she is talking to the king and queen, her eyes are blue.
Correction: The actress' eyes are blue, from first frame to last.
Corrected entry: At one point, Leonardo da Vinci asks our Prince to retrieve a gold tube-like thing that's been stolen from him. Once Prince Henry gets back, he says something like "Why was this such a matter or life or death?" or something like that, to which Leonardo replies "A lady is always a matter of life and death" and proceeds to UNROLL a painting, which we see is the Mona Lisa. This is impossible! The Mona Lisa was painted on wood!
Correction: There was more than one painting made, and not all were on wood. Da Vinci wouldn't have known which one we would value today.
Correction: That would be a character mistake, not a movie mistake. The peasants are not use to seeing members of the royal family rushing around in a rather undignified manner and are surprised by what they've encountered.