As I sit here, trying to study for my test, I decided to "Google" Ever After and see what I could find. I ran into some pretty neat stuff.
First, some fun trivia from the Internet Movie DataBase:
1. The portrait of Drew Barrymore's character (which is painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in the film) is actually modeled after another Da Vinci Work, "La Scapigliata".
2. In actuality, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was painted on wooden panel, making it quite impossible to roll up into a tube.
3.The glass slippers were made by Salvatore Ferragamo.
4.At the start of the film when the Brothers Grimm are talking to the queen about the many different versions of the Cinderella story they mention that in some versions the slippers she wears to the ball are fur rather than glass. This refers to Charles Perrault's version of the story, which was the first to introduce the glass slipper (which in French is "pantoufle de verre"), and how some people believe it was actually an misinterpretation of the words for a fur slipper (pantoufle de vair).
5.When Danielle is swimming in the lake, she is using the inverted breaststroke. It is a stroke that was popular in medieval and Renaissance Europe, but is rarely taught today.
6. As depicted in the film, the real Leonardo da Vinci kept the Mona Lisa with him all the time until his death.
7. King Francois I of France (called Francis in the movie) bought the Mona Lisa for 4000 ecus.
The next set of information I found incredibly entertaining:
GOOFS! These are parts of the movie they messed up on!
Anachronisms: When Danielle is returning Maurice to his wife, you can see a watch tan line on the arm of a female peasant.
Factual errors: When the Prince saves da Vinci's Mona Lisa, it is rolled up in a tube. But the Mona Lisa is painted on wood, and cannot be rolled.
Factual errors: Prince Henry of France in fact married Catherine de Medici, a member of the Italian nobility.
Anachronisms: Prince Henry exclaims that Danielle is to marry a Belgian. This was Rodmilla's excuse as to why he would never see her again. But Belgium didn't come into existence until 1830. It was constructed as a buffer zone between France and Germany to prevent them from going to war so often. Before 1830, what is now Belgium was made up of regions which were repeatedly occupied by several European kingdoms. One region might be part of France while another was part of Spain and so on, but it wasn't a country as such yet. The name Belgium is derived from a tribe of Gauls which roughly lived is this region during Julius Caesar's conquests of Gaul. He wrote, Of all Gauls the Belgians are the bravest (De Bello Gallico, book I, 1.3). So in the 16th century there weren't any Belgians, ancient or modern-day.
Continuity: Danielle is whipped on her back for her behavior but then a few days later at the ball we see her back and there are no scars.
Factual errors: At the time Leonard De Vinci was brought to France, Francis was married to Queen Claude De France and Henry was barely born (his birth-date is 1519). After Claude De France died from exhaustion in 1524, King Francis went to marry Eleanor of Austria in 1529.
Anachronisms: The ages of King Francis I and Prince Henry, as well as references to Cartier's voyages to America, would set the movie in about 1540 (when Prince Henry was 21 years old). However, the movie also depicts Leonardo da Vinci coming to France at the invitation of King Francis. In fact, Leonardo came to France in 1516 and died there in 1519, the same year Prince Henry was born and 15 years before Cartier first sailed to North America.
Continuity: When Rodmilla is talking to Danielle the morning after the ball, in shots from behind her it looks like her arms are at her sides, but from the front her hands are on her hips.
Anachronisms: While trying on the courtier's dress, Danielle says her stepmother buys presents for her stepsister like she has "money to burn." However, in Danielle's time, currency consisted of precious metals and stones, which would (if possible) be melted rather then burned. It wouldn't be until centuries later that there would be such a thing as paper currency, which could be burned.
Continuity: Near the end of the movie, Henry sits down with Danielle to try on a slipper. When it shows Danielle from the front, her hair is pushed behind on her shoulders. But when it shows her from the side or the back, her hair is separated and pulled forward on each side.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Various words, such as "philanthropist" and "management," that did not exist at the time are used. It can be assumed we are hearing a modern English translation of what the characters were actually saying.
Anachronisms: Henry gives Marguerite chocolate at the tennis game. Although the Spanish had brought back cocoa from New Spain, it was not used in France until the 18th century (200 years later), and when it was, it was drunk with vanilla. Solid, edible chocolate like we have today has only been around for about one hundred years.
Continuity: The angle of the slipper when Leonardo sets it before the prince after Danielle flees.
Continuity: Gustav steals and wears the uniform of a palace guard who is more than a head shorter than him, yet the uniform seems to fit perfectly.
Continuity: Danielle's arm when she and Prince Henry are kissing at the ruins.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Prince Henry comes upon da Vinci's carriage being robbed one of the gypsies yells out "The royal guards!" Prince Henry is then shown looking over his shoulder to see the guards quickly approaching on horses. He rolls his eyes and is heard saying "I can't believe this," but his mouth doesn't move until a moment later.
Anachronisms: In the final scene where the camera pulls back from the castle, a car is visible on the road in the top left-hand corner.
Continuity: When Rodmilla is talking to Danielle, we see her hand on her chin. The next shot shows her hand on Danielle's face, while the next shot shows her hand on her own chin again.
Factual errors: The University of Paris, the first university in France, was fully established by 1200, not the late 1500s.
Anachronisms: When Danielle is putting on her dress to rescue Maurice, we see the zipper on the back of her dress.
Continuity: The prince picks up the same piece of chocolate twice when he is talking to Margrite.
Factual errors: Not only is the Mona Lisa made of wood but it is much smaller than shown in the film.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The term "franc" is used in the film, even though the currency of the time was the livre and the franc did not officially come into use until the French Revolution. However, the livre was colloquially referred to as the "franc" as early as the 14th century, although this usage did not gain widespread acceptance until the 1600s.
Continuity: After recovering from his fall during the tennis game, Henry sees that Marguerite is holding the ball. She stands behind an opening in the wall with some other spectators. He walks toward her, and a moment later we see Marguerite again, but this time she is on the same side of the wall as Henry, and there is a net over the opening.
Anachronisms: Utopia was written in 1516 and Da Vinci died in 1519, so how could Danielle have received that book as a child, then met Da Vinci as an adult?
Anachronisms: Throughout the movie it is obvious they are wearing footwear which have a left foot and a right foot, commonplace today. However this practice was invented by King George IV of England, who ruled from 1820 until 1830, much later than the movie is set.
Continuity: The leaves as Henry and the bad guy are falling over the cliff after rescuing the painting.
Continuity: When Henry and the bad guy slide down the cliff for the painting, two men fell down, but only one man pops up.
Continuity: After Henry asks Danielle to marry him, he picks her up and spins her around. Her hair is underneath his arms in one shot, and in the next it is not.
Continuity: When Danielle is climbing the hillside to look for the castle, you can see from the sky behind her that it is daylight. In the next shot the sky is much darker, as if it is nighttime.
Factual errors: King Francis of France constructed and lived primarily at the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley, not not at the Château de Hautefort (though certain exterior architectural details were similar). Da Vinci was said to have designed the famous double helix spiral staircase that is central to the design of the château, though he died in the year construction was started. Interestingly enough, the symbol of Frani?ois I, the salamander, is seen many times throughout the film (eg on the tapestry behind the thrones in the audience chamber).
Continuity: When Signor DaVinci is preparing to walk on water, his "shoes" have the shape of a complete boat, including the keel. When he then falls into the water the bottoms of the shoes are flat.
Continuity: When Rodmilla notices the candlesticks are missing from the dinner table, the candles on the plate are very short, but in the next shot they are much longer.
Continuity: The King of France refers to Virginia Garcia's character as Princess Gabriella, but in the end titles, she is identified as Princess Gertrude.
Factual errors: It is stated several times that the prisoners were being shipped to the Americas. The French kept the prisoners "close at-hand" under the eye of the King, and sent only those the King could trust. This tactic was used to prevent any revolting with their colonies in America. It was the English that sent their prisoners to the Americas.
Continuity: When the gypsies grab Danielle, the gypsy leader and Henry fight. In one shot, the gypsy leader has leaves on his scarf. When they cut back to him, the leaves are gone. Then when they cut back to him a third time, the leaves are back.
Factual errors: In Italian, "signore" is only used as a general term. "Signor" is used with a last name. Often Da Vinci is called "Signore Da Vinci", and this is linguistically incorrect.
Continuity: When Danielle is being held by the gypsies, her headpiece is straight in one frame, crooked in the next, and straight again for the rest of the scene.
Continuity: During the wedding of Prince Henry to the Princess of Spain, after he decides to let her go she runs off to the short bald guy. In the background, Prince Henry can be seen removing his cape and looking to the side. In the next scene there is a close-up shot of him removing the same cape and smiling before running off.
Miscellaneous: Towards the end of the movie after Danielle has been freed from Pierre Le Pieu, Henry is shown running towards her. There is a mud splatter on his right pant leg above his boot. When he is turned around after Danielle moves to leave, the splatter is gone.
Factual errors: At the end the Grand Dame refers to her "great-great-grandmother's portrait". Given the approximately 250-year gap between Danielle and the Grande Dame, that comes out to about 62 years between generations. It's barely possible, and highly unlikely, that there would be that few generations between them.
Continuity: Marguerite's hair when giving the Queen back her necklace, it's VERY wavy in one shot then the next has very few waves, then when they are back at the house her hair has lots of waves in it again.
Continuity: During the tennis match after Henry falls into the crowd, his vest is filled with handkerchiefs from the Courtesans. The position and amounts of these vary in the next few shots.
Continuity: During breakfast, the morning Prince Henry steals the horse, Rodmilla is seen cracking the top off a boiled egg, asking why there is no salt at the table. When Danielle arrives with the salt, Rodmilla sprinkles a spoonful over a fully peeled egg in her bowl. In the next scene, she is scooping egg out of the shell of the original egg.
So we see, even a cute movie like this has is little secrets!!!!
