The Phantom of the Opera

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

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

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.

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.

Sereenie

Factual error: In the film, most of the characters don't wear nearly enough stage makeup. In "Think of Me", when Christine is performing in front of a packed auditorium, for example, she would have needed a lot of blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, etc. just to look "normal" from the audience's perspective. Instead, as you can see by watching the film, she looks pale and washed out.

The Phantom of the Opera mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: As Christine approaches the Phantom in his lair (just after he has abducted her), we see that she is wearing very dark black eye-shadow. Back in the dressing room after coming off stage, as she talks to Raoul, we saw her face in close up and she was not wearing any eye-shadow at all, even though the Phantom leads her through the mirror just after she has managed to slip on a robe over her undergarments and she has not yet changed to go out to supper (Raoul says she is to be ready in 2 minutes). Her hair becomes 'bigger' and wilder, too. The change in her appearance is a reference to her descending (voluntarily, I might add - he didn't drag her through that mirror) into the Phantom's dark existence and to her sexual awakening. (00:28:45 - 00:37:10)

More mistakes in The Phantom of the Opera
More quotes from The Phantom of the Opera

Trivia: In one of the 1919 flashback scenes, Raoul looks out of the car window at a Swarovski jewelry store. The Swarovski crystal company made the chandelier for the film, valued at over $1.3 million.

More trivia for The Phantom of the Opera

Question: Who is the old man in the wheelchair who puts the music box with the monkey on Christine's grave at the end?I thought it might be Raoul but the box belonged to the phantom and he hated the phantom.

Answer: It is Raoul. He gets the music box because Christine obviously loved it, shown by the fact that she had obviously described and remembered it in such great detail many years after last seeing it. He buys it for her as a gift of love, even though she has died.

mandy gasson

Answer: It's also a symbol that Raoul recognized Christine still loved the phantom. Possibly more than him. The love triangle is complete as neither man truly had her. Raoul spent his life with her but she loved the phantom. The phantom missed out on spending life with her but got her love.

Answer: It's Raoul. When the auctioneer sells him the music box, he addresses him by his title, The Vicomte de Chagny.

More questions & answers from The Phantom of the Opera

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.