Greta Gerwig’s Cinematic Influences for Narnia Revealed?
Do these films represent part of Greta Gerwig’s artistic vision for The Magician’s Nephew?
On every film she has directed so far – Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie – Greta Gerwig has compiled a list of films which have inspired her creative choices (click the film titles above to see them). She has also been known to screen these films for her staff during the pre-production phase of each project, and it is our understanding that this has been no different for Narnia.
Following the news therefore that Charli XCX is potentially being eyed for a role in Gerwig’s Narnia – eagle eyed fans have spotted some interesting movie choices on Charli’s Letterboxd account. On March 8th, just a few days after being linked to Narnia, Charli added six classic Hollywood films to her Watchlist, the majority of which are films that Greta Gerwig has specifically mentioned in interviews as being amongst her favorites.
Click the name of each film below to see what Greta Gerwig has said about them in the past:
- Baby Face (1933)
- Ball of Fire (1941)
- Double Idemnity (1944)
- The Lady Eve (1941)
- Young Frankenstein (1974)
- All About Eve (1950)
We also know from Letterboxd that Charli XCX watched Walden Media’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe back in December, indicating she has possibly been in talks with Netflix since as early as last year, and potentially even as far back as November when Greta was spotted at one of her concerts in London.
Charli has also added other Gerwig-favourite movies prior to being officially linked with Narnia, such as Naked (1993) which she watched on February 23rd.
It is impossible to say for certain whether any of these films are the exact films that Greta has been screening for the existing production crew right now (though it is a realistic possibility that she might ask new cast and crew members to catch-up with them retrospectively) and even if confirmed, it would be very difficult to say for certain what exact inspiration Greta Gerwig might be looking to gleam from each of these films.
When looking at the picks for her previous films – Ladybird, Little Women and Barbie – many of the inspirations pertain to the smaller details from each film, such as the editing, pacing, acting style, costume design, use of colour, tone, and even specific shot choices, rather than necessarily to the overall thematic content of the films in their entirety.
That said, from initial observations, a few interesting themes do jump out from some of these films:
- Four of the films star Barbara Stanwyck.
- Two of the films feature characters named Eve.
- One of the films features an eccentric scientist doing experiments.
Have you watched any of these films? What, if anything, do you think can be drawn from them with regards to Narnia? Head on over to the forums to discuss further!
Whilst its very difficult to say anything for certain about this list, especially given how hard it is to find any of them via mainstream streaming services, i can definitely see Daniel Craig channeling some of that Gene Wilder energy from Young Frankenstein into his Uncle Andrew performance.
Tracing a director’s influences is one of my favorite things to do in the world. 🙂
Two things jump out at me:
Lots of Barbara Stanwyck. Is Gerwig asking Charli XCX to model her performance on her in some way?
Several of these movies have a garden of Eden subtext.
If I was to make a Magican’s Nephew Movie, my Artistic influence would be Lord Of The Rings, The Original Chronicles of Narnia, The Dark Knight, Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V and his Winter’s Tale, Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes, Jumanji, Disney’s Live Action Cinderella and Pixar’s Brave and The Opening of Oppenheimer.
Peer Jackson, Andrew Adamson, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Christopher Nolan, Joe Johnson.
AND — all of these movies are in black & white. Hmmm — ???
Two of the films, Double Imdentiy and Lady Eve have to do with a woman working behind the scenes on an evil plan and making the guy think that he planned it. So, this could be Greta’s impression of Jadis.
I absolutely agree with Eustace, all these films have to do with Villainous Woman, Remember if she Screened these Films for Charli XCX, then these are only for the inspiration for Jadis, There are Probably many other films Like Lord of the Rings that are inspiring this film, Craig is Probably being Shown Different Films that link with his Character as well.
@Noah Cosgrove, I wouldn’t describe the woman in My Lady Eve as a villain, more of a likeable antiheroine. (Eve from All About Eve on the other hand…)
As mentioned above, Greta uses many references to rationalize her artistic portrayals of her movies by bringing out the emotional aspects whether how it is shown with regards to the acting, angle of the camera, and so forth while riding on the back of using allegory or metaphors of “life lessons” , like in the Bible or other universal religious thinking, as a mean to place some weight on the reason certain things happen in her movies drawing on a sense of bittersweet complexity each of her characters go through with their own arc. I assume that these references are insights to enlight a more artistic and “dreamlike” feature she will bring into the movie as Greta can and has already shown in her films bring out the emotions making her characters and the world built within feels real and heartwarming. I just how they get good music, costumes, and set designs to really bring out the dream like fantasy of Narnia, which based on reports seem to most likely lead up to that. I feel around May or June that big news will be on the horizon.