Continuity mistake: When Christine first enters the Phantom's 'lair', one perfectly shaped lock of hair is on her left shoulder. Then, throughout "Music of the Night", it gets thinner, longer, and less curly two or three times. Then it goes back to its original thickness, length, and amount of curl.
Factual error: In the shot where Raoul and Christine are standing at the window of the Swarovski shop, the window shows the current Swarovski logo of a swan. In the time the movie is set, they still used the Eidelweiss as their symbol; it was not changed until the late 1980's.
Revealing mistake: When the Phantom first appears in "Don Juan," he is wearing his shorter full face mask showing his neatly trimmed sideburns. This continues until he and Christine reach the top catwalk when the neatly trimmed sideburns have been replaced by pretend sideburns and rubber prosthetics necessary for the removal of the Phantom's mask. The prosthetics also shine differently in the stage lights whilst the Phantom is wearing them. Most obviously as he arrives at the top of the stairs of the catwalk.
Continuity mistake: Right before Christine pulls off the Phantom's mask for the second time, at the end of The Point of No Return, his wig has already moved up to the point where you can see his real hair underneath before Christine even touches him.
Visible crew/equipment: Right after Christine is shown on stage singing "Think of Me", the camera pans out to show the audience members. When it gets to the back of the room on the floor, you can see at least 5 dummies used as seat fillers. They look to be only torsos and heads sleeveless t-shirts on.
Continuity mistake: During All I Ask of You, Christine and Raoul are walking on the rooftop, and he even picks her up and swings her around. When the Phantom sings the reprise almost immediately afterward, there is a shot of him on the statue that shows the entire rooftop area, and his footprints in the snow are the only ones visible. This rooftop is a closed area and the only way in or out is the door and steps we see Raoul and Christine using. Furthermore, the Phantom was spying on the lovers by hiding behind a statue almost next to them, and it was not snowing nearly heavy enough to have completely covered up Raoul and Christine's footprints.
Other mistake: At the end of the movie we can see Christine's grave. The inscription on her tombstone is in English and she is even called "Countess de Chagny" instead of "Comtesse." But the entire story takes place in France, and all the other signs and posters besides this grave are in French. There is no reason whatsoever why the inscription should be in English instead of in French, especially considering that the closeness between the words countess and comtesse would make the title easily recognisable even by non-French speakers.
Audio problem: During Christine's lines in her first scene of the film, her lips don't match what she's saying. Her lines must be added during post-production.
Continuity mistake: When the Phantom is singing and close-ups are done on his face, you can see his right eyebrow peeking out from under the mask. But we see later, when he is shown without his mask, that he has no eyebrow at all on that side as a result of his deformity.
Continuity mistake: When old Raoul is watching the young couple outside the Swarovski shop his eye turns brown as we move back in time, but young Raoul's eyes are blue.
Continuity mistake: When the young phantom is murdering the carnival man, young Mme Giry walks though the gap in the tent, and turns so all you can see of her is her eye and the side of her face. In the next shot of her, her whole body is inside the tent.
Audio problem: When the Phantom takes Christine down to his lair the second time, in the shot where the camera is behind his neck and facing Christine, you can see that the movements of his jaw are out of synch with the words he's supposed to be singing.
Other mistake: During "Don Juan Triumphant" Christine and Meg have MUCH less make up on than any other members of the cast, which is I suppose used to separate them and make them more noticeable, but on a stage that big it would be required to have a lot of makeup just like everyone else, because otherwise the audience can't see your face.
Other mistake: When the manager comes into the lobby for "Notes", there is a man mopping the floor. The mop is completely dry.
Continuity mistake: In the gypsy fair scene the Phantom has a dirty back. In the next scene when he's running away with the Dancing Mistress to go under the Opera House, his back is clean.
Continuity mistake: Toward the end of the scene "Little Lotte," when Christine says, "No Raoul, wait," we see Raoul close the door and exit. Instantly after he shuts it we see the outside of the door, but Raoul is nowhere to be seen. There is no way that he could have already gone because there is no shot between the time when he closes the door and when we see the outside of her dressing room, where he should be at least for a second. We know that this is most certainly the outside of the door because we see the Phantom's hand and Madame Giry moments later.
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.
Continuity mistake: During "Masquerade", during the shots with the people dancing on the stairs in unison with their fans, you can see Christine and Raoul smiling. Behind them is a man with a wig shaped as an afro next to a large plant. The next shot you see the couple, he is gone, then you see him again in the following shot of Christine and Raoul.
Deliberate mistake: When Christine is in her dressing room right after Hannibal, all of the candles are shown going out. The Phantom and Christine begin to sing. There are no windows in the room and the candles have all gone out, yet the room is still somehow lit. The light is not coming from the mirror where the phantom is yet.
Visible crew/equipment: When Raoul jumps down the hole into the mirror room, you see he is alone. Between when he jumps down, and the appearance of the phantom's reflection, if you slow down the movie you see a man in a gray shirt in the mirrors behind Raoul. He appears in at least three mirrors. Slow-mo is not essential but does help.
Answer: First, it is established in the movie that he is dependant on Madame Giry and it is presumed she does his shopping for him. As for learning skills, it is established he is a genius and one can assume he is very well read. Additionally, for single handed skills, like driving a carriage, he can possibly go out at night to learn them. As for his living conditions, the human body adapts well to continuous conditions, it is how the people in Siberia can tolerate lower temperatures better than those who live close to the equator. Lastly, one can easily assume he has other (warmer) clothes that he wears off camera.
OneHappyHusky
There is a character simply known as 'the Persian' He has known the Phantom his whole life and would have taught him horse driving. In the book, the Phantom has a life before the opera house where he would have learned fencing and torture. Also, the phantom knows all the secret passages. When it's cold he leaves his lair and lives someplace warmer.
You're totally right but also, in addition to your mention of The Persian, in the book it is he that is the Phantom's only "friend" or whatever but in the movie there is no Persian exactly but the two Characters Madam Giry and The Persian from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston L. Are both combined as one, to be know as Madame Giry in the 2004 flim.
debbi.ee