Trivia
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Spoilers (2)
Because it was filmed in Britain, Woody Allen had to have a certain percentage of British cast and crew. Apparently he made his quota before casting Kate Winslet. After she backed out to spend more time with her family, Allen cast American Scarlett Johansson.
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The painting of a girl with a red balloon on the wall that Chris walks along was done by Banksy, a graffiti artist from Bristol.
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The musical they see midway through the movie is Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Woman In White".
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Woody Allen's first film in 19 years to make a profit in America. The last was Hannah and Her Sisters.
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The haunting recording used several times in the soundtrack, including over the opening and closing credits, is the Enrico Caruso 78 rpm of "Una furtiva lagrima" ("A furtive tear"), from Gaetano Donizetti's opera "L'Elisir d'Amore" ("The Elixir of Love").
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On set Jonathan Rhys Meyers learned how to do a very good Woody Allen impression which he later performed on "Live With Regis and Kelly".
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In joke: Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) responds to a generosity by saying, "Thank you. Thank you very much." This exact phrase is often associated with Elvis Presley, whom Meyers played in Elvis.
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The other song frequently played is 'Romance de Nadir', from Bizet's 'Les pêcheurs de perles', in which one of the pearl fishers dreams about his forbidden love.
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The family name "Hewett" is a play on the ultra exclusive Manhattan private school "Hewitt" which Mr. Allen's daughters attend.
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Spoilers
Chris is shown reading 'Crime and Punishment', by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Later on, when talking to Mrs. Eastby's ghost, he refers to the book, by saying that sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice the innocent in order to succeed.
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The reference to 'Crime and Punishment' is continued, as the escape, after the double-murder is almost a step-by-step recounting of Raskolnikov's escape from his double-murder. The major difference being that the older woman was Raskolnikov's target, and the younger woman was collateral damage. In the movie, it's the other way around, but staged to look the other way.
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