Rewatching it, something occured to me I didn't catch the first time.
Can someone please enlighten me what's with all the Princes?
My definition of a Prince is that he is the son of a King.
There are at least two Princes in this film, descending from different families and absolutely not being sons of Kings.
Why are they called Princes then?
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On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur.
Not all princes (and princesses) are Royal Princes... The title can also apply for the inheritors of a title named for a specific territory. This is the case for French nobility... and I suppose for Russian nobility too.
My knowledge on these matters is not extensive though...
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
Like most of continental Europe, the title Prince in old regime Russia was noble or formerly royal. Junior members of the House of Romanov were styled grand duke rather than prince. My understanding is that the title prince in the Russian nobility derived from several origins: the descendants of the ancient Kievan rulers whose lands had been incorporated in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy (i.e. Russia) in the 16th and 17th centuries; former ruling families of Georgia incorporated in the Russian nobility after its conquest in 1801; and finally, court favorites granted the title by the Tsar, such as A. D. Menshikov and G. A. Potemkin. Likewise in central Europe the title was also usually non-royal, such as the great Hungarian noble dynasty of Princes Esterhazy or the Austrian-Bohemian dynasties of the Princes Schwarzenberg and Liechtenstein (the latter becoming sovereigns more or less by accident when their obscure Alpine territory outlasted the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and then avoided being incorporated into either Austria or Germany in the 19th century).
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