Goofs for
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) More at IMDb Pro »

• Continuity: When Van Ruijven comes to dinner, to discuss a new commission for Vermeer, he grabs Griet and she drops the dishes she is carrying. She leans down to pick them up placing a broken piece on top of one that isn't. When she stands back up neither plate she has in her hand is broken.
  
  
• Continuity: As Vermeer starts to paint Griet he is wearing a shirt that ties at the collar. At the easel it is tied loosely in a double knot baring some of his upper chest. When Griet goes into the storeroom and Vermeer follows and stares at her the strings of the shirt are now tied tightly to his neck
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Griet and Vermeer look at the clouds standing in front of the window, it's winter (according to the scenes before and after this one). Nevertheless, you can hear the sounds of swallows squeaking. These birds are only in The Netherlands in summer.
  
  

• Anachronisms: The camera obscura is partially made of plywood which was invented in the 1930s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Griet and Pieter are walking on a lane in the countryside, in the distance you can see a man riding a bicycle. Bicycles were invented in the 18th century while the film takes place in 1665.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The fork with four points (they are shown among other tools during preparation for the celebration of the baby's birth and Vermeer's new painting) was invented in the 18th century, at the time of Ferdinand the Second, which is almost one century after the film's action.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tanneke is getting ready for the first dinner with Van Ruijven she is greasing up a couple of chickens and gets some grease on her dress. In the next shot there is no grease.
  
  
• Continuity: When Griet first hears the rumors about herself, her cap changes from square flaps (walking to the market) to pointed flaps (talking to the butcher's son at the market) and back to square flaps again (talking to Vermeer and his patron back at home again)
  
  
• Continuity: After her ear has been pierced, Griet picks up the earring and begins to hand it to Vermeer. In the next shot, she is picking it up off the table again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Vermeer shows Griet the camera obscura, the scene that is set up for the painting is the one he just sold of the woman examining the pearls in the mirror. But when Griet looks into the camera, it's the scene with the woman at the window.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Griet poses for the first time in the film (about 30 minutes in) you see her with one hand on the window and with the other holding a water pitcher. This is taken from a painting Johannes Vermeer made in 1662-1663, called: Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, but the film takes place in 1665.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the beginning of the film, a man is shown walking with a cane, but he is using the cane incorrectly. A cane should be held in the hand opposite of the bad foot -- never the same side as the bad foot (as the man was doing).
  
  

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