Posted by: @impending-doom

Which tone/direction do we think Gerwig is going for now, based on the recent set videos of Jadis? 

I know some people will definitely leap towards "comical" on account of the costume, but I think there are also signs that they are increasing the tension and dramatic stakes of the whole scene.

Having Digory along for the ride not only provides the audience with a better point-of-view character for the scene, but also increases the stakes of the scene, by having our main protagonist in peril and at risk.

Having Jadis rampage through iconic locations of the British state such as the Tower of London (and likely Buckingham Palace and other landmarks to be shot soon) potentially heightens the impact of the scene. Jadis isn't just jaunting through the suburbs, it shows she has the intent and capability to do serious damage to our world.

The set photos (and the videos of the stunt doubles galloping) certainly lean into the intense side of things.

I hope they can balance the comedy and drama though. Someone mentioned how Marvel movies break the tension with a joke that undermines the drama of a scene. I prefer to think of the DC movies in this respect. In The Dark Knight, there are a number of scenes where the Joker makes some sadistic jokes. I remember seeing this movie in the cinemas, the audience genuinely laughed when the joker made these jokes - but the humour made the danger more real rather than less (think of the “I am going to make this pencil disappear” scene). In these scenes people would refer to the joker as a ‘freak’ and he would respond in an uncomfortable, irritated way, which was on the one hand pathetic and invited you to laugh at him, but on the other hand you could see that he wanted revenge and that he was able to inflict brutal revenge - which made it really scary.

In a similar vein, the Wonder Woman movie had some ‘fish out of water’ scenes where Dianna did not understand WW1 British culture / European culture. Some of these scenes were simply played for laughs, but there were some where her ignorance made the situation more dangerous. The latter scenes made audiences laugh, but they didn’t take you out of the movie because they maintained the stakes.

In an odd way, I feel the same way about the comedy in the fight at the lamppost.

We see Jadis riding on a hansom as if it were a chariot (which is comical). Then she leaps off the hansom and lands on the horse - showing super-human agility, which is no laughing matter.

The crowd (and us with them) laugh at her for being so wacky and out of touch with the Victorians surrounding her. But she hates being made a fool and rips the lamppost as if it were a twig and proceeds to assault police officers.

She is a genuinely dangerous woman who revels in making Strawberry more furious and lethal.

It may be difficult to put on screen, but it would be great if the film makers can maintain this tension between drama and comedy.

The milkman falling over and the police chasing on foot lean more into comedy, while Jadis blasting someone with her wand pushes it in the opposite direction... I suppose it really comes down to how the scene is edited. It's possible Gerwig doesn't quite know yet, and wants as many moments filmed as possible to select from later. I hope the milkman makes the final cut! It looks like a nice light-hearted moment.

It actually reminds me of those YouTube edits where someone changes the music over a movie scene and the tone feels completely different.

Here's hoping, @impending-doom, that Greta Gerwig is able to capture both the comedy aspects and the more serious aspects of this scene.  From the images that have been coming out recently, I think she does appear to be filming both aspects - as you point out.

From what we've seen released, (as I wrote in another thread), my opinion is leaning more towards positive position now, whilst still being fairly neutral.  I think the idea of showing Jadis having some (but limited) power in London brings about a realness and threateningness to power that I think will be helpful in telling the story - hopefully this indicates that Greta Gerwig won't be going down the route of making Narnia into a dreamlike country like Wonderland or Oz.  I am very keen to see the London scenes when this is released.

Lots of pics and videos on various social media platforms from filming this weekend in London. 🙂 I wanted to post here because it looks like several police officers are taken out while chasing Jadis on bicycles. Obviously I don't know how it will be portrayed in the movie when it comes out, but it certainly has the potential to be humorous. 

Netflix’s Narnia Film From Greta Gerwig Returns to Film in London With Intense Police Chase

I mean....it's a bunch of police officers chasing a crazed woman on a horse while following along on bicycles.  

I don't know if this is more appropriate for the thread on the Magician's Nephew right now, but the whole book seems to have a lighter, more comedic tone than the rest of the series. There's also other aspects like the First Joke, the whole portrayal of Andrew like him dipping into his liquor collection, the whole way Fledge talks... It's fitting to have a lighter atmosphere with the magic of Narnia temporarily in the air and all the future ahead, and contrasts from especially Silver Chair and the Last Battle, which have "dark" energy. 

Posted by: @starlit

I don't know if this is more appropriate for the thread on the Magician's Nephew right now, but the whole book seems to have a lighter, more comedic tone than the rest of the series. 

I don't know about the whole book... there are many light-hearted aspects to it, as you say. But there's also a villain who destroyed every other living thing in her world with a single word, rather than give up her throne (with the reminder at the end that something similar could happen in our world, thanks to nuclear weapons). And this is the one book where a child character from our world is grappling with the impending death of a loved one, and we're taken into his emotions at far greater depth than in (I would argue) any of the other books in the series. (Lewis, of course, had been there himself in real life, and in his case there was no happy ending.) The scene where Jadis tempts Digory to take the apple to cure his mother, rather than obey Aslan, is one of the most heart-wrenching moments in all the Chronicles.

And everything else in the story ultimately revolves around, and is tinged by, Digory's grief over his mother's impending death (we first learn about it on the second page of the first chapter) and his longing to find a cure for her. All the comedic moments — and there are many of them — happen against that background. It's not as relentlessly dark a story overall as the first three quarters of The Last Battle, but I wouldn't say it's very much lighter by comparison. 

Posted by: @impending-doom

Which tone/direction do we think Gerwig is going for now, based on the recent set videos of Jadis? 

I imagine that there will be some "fish out of water" comedy with Jadis not knowing how to act in our world (and I imagine the bizarre costume she's wearing is one she assembled out of various items on earth, and is not something she was wearing in Charn).  However, I think even though there will be comedic elements, Gerwig is going to still emphasize that Jadis is dangerous and not to be underestimated.