Another pair of recent movies which definitely have that "timeless" quality for me are Paddington 1 & 2.... oddly enough, also directed by Paul King (as per Wonka).

Both Paddington movies are set in the modern era, and yet the family live in a very traditional Edwardian townhouse, with all the traditional period fittings (including the old fashioned style bathtub). The family all dress in a very traditional manner - the kids with their school uniforms and the dad with his stuffy suit and tie, more befitting of the 1930s than the 2020s.

Even in the sequel where (not really a spoiler) Paddington gets sent to Prison for reasons I can't recall, the Prison has an entirely Victorian aesthetic from the sets to the inmate's attire.

As with Wonka, the film gets away with it because the Director leans into it with his visual style -- Its modern enough to be relatable (plus the huge convenience of being able to shoot outside in the real world without extensive set-dressing and CGI) but also manages to remain evocative of the original 1950s Paddington Books, and also the 1970s TV show (of which there is a whole montage done in the style of that show in Paddington 2) by being very firmly "old fashioned" when it needs to be.

I think that's one of the reasons I had Paul King down to be my dream director choice for Narnia before Greta Gerwig signed on, as well as the fact that the Paddington movies are just thoroughly delightful and really hit the right mark on tone.

Either way, I think the Paddington movies prove its possible to marry a modern setting with traditional sensibilities and old fashioned aesthetics.

Posted by: @icarus

I think the secret to pulling this off lies somewhere in here - the staging and cinematography.

In both of the aforementioned films, the directorial vision has enough of a stylised element to it (such as the whimsical tone of David Copperfield or the dream-like quality of the Green Knight) to basically signify to the audience "hey, don't worry about it".

I know I wrote before that I was openminded about colorblind casting but to be honest, the idea of doing a Narnia movie with a more "theatrical" style rubs me the wrong way. C. S. Lewis's descriptions in the Narnia books feel so physical and real to me and theatre is such a... symbolic medium for lack of a better term.  

“Stop!” said the Lady, and the dwarf pulled the reindeer up so sharp that they almost sat down. Then they recovered themselves and stood champing their bits and blowing. In the frosty air the breath coming out of their nostrils looked like smoke.

They were pretty tired by now of course; but not what I’d call bitterly tired — only slow and feeling very dreamy and quiet inside as one does when one is coming to the end of a long day in the open. Susan had a slight blister on one heel.

It was well worth it. It was not like the silly fighting you see with broad swords on the stage. It was not even like the rapier fighting which you sometimes see rather better done. This was real broad-sword fighting. The great thing is to slash at your enemy's legs and feet because they are the part that have no armour. And when he slashes at yours you jump with both feet off the ground so that his blow goes under them.

Jill thought that when, in books, people live on what they shoot, it never tells you what a long, smelly, messy job it is plucking and cleaning dead birds, and how cold it makes your fingers.

(I could probably think of better quotes if I'd read the books more recently.)

You yourself have said that Narnia should feel like a real place albeit an idealized, joyful one.

Having said all that...

Posted by: @courtenay

But if a new adapation didn't make any clear references to a specific era in our world at all — just gave it a vague "mid-late 20th century" vibe for the relatively few scenes that are set on Earth, and put most of the emphasis on the magicalness of Narnia itself — that could work, at least if the entire production was done well enough that viewers don't really stop to think about what era it's set in, but just enjoy the story.

I think you could argue that's what C. S. Lewis did in the books. A long time ago a Narniawebber described how it would be hard for the filmmakers to adapt The Silver Chair because it supposedly takes place in the mid to late 1940s but the details of Experiment House suggest an experimental school from the 50s. I thought of telling them that viewers generally don't care about historical details like that, but I didn't want to hurt their feelings. While I'd admire it if Netflix (or whoever) does a lot of research to recreate England at a specific time in history, I think it'd feel perfectly true to the books (only a few of which concentrate much on this world) if they did a combination of the 40s and 50s that never was. (Incidentally, a movie adaptation of another of my favorite kids' books, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, is going to be released soon and from what I understand, the production team did something like that with the 1970s and the 1980s.) 

Posted by: @narnian-in-the-north

The Victorian era isn't mentioned in Jane Eyre but if you don't take the culture and societal norms of the Victorian era into account you miss (in my opinion) a lot of what Charlotte Brontë intended. The same applies to the Chronicles of Narnia, the children simply are not modern children. 

There are so many great arguments detailed in this thread. @Courtenay I think has put the gist of it much better than I could - and I enjoyed the in-joke btw! But this point from @narnian-in-the-north kind of summarises the main point for me. 

Yes, if Greta really wanted to, and had a clear vision that worked, she could make a Narnian story outside of the 20th Century. BUT, she'd have to undergo probably too much cultural unravelling from the stories to make it feel right. There are possible work arounds, sure, but they'd have lots of knock on effects to the narrative as well as the beloved atmosphere of the books.

The pandemic scenario would prove an unwise red herring in my opinion, especially as moving across the country even in March 2020 was not the normative response in Britain, like the WWII evacuations were in 1940s.

Another compelling reason for me not to change the time setting, is that moving it to present-day ironically 'dates' the production. Even the Harry Potter films are showing signs of this. But if you keep them as period stories, they stay timeless.

I don’t know how I would feel about a present day Narnia. Even if our world was set to this day, I would still be happy with the world of Narnia having a medieval setting. In a way, it would almost be like going back in time. 

@jasmine_tarkheena 

Narnia is more like the medieval King Arthur stories than anything modern. A movie version would certainly be more authentic if it looked like the time of King Arthur because I think that was more like something that C. S. Lewis had in mind, and he was a medievalist.

The 1940’s time period in our world at the beginning was also part of the original story, and I think it should also be kept to be true to C. S. Lewis’ book. I think that is best for an adaptation since it respects the author’s intentions.

@jasmine_tarkheena As far as I can see, the whole discussion on this topic has been about whether the parts of the stories that are set in our world should be set in the present day, or close to it, rather than in the 1940s. There's been no suggestion that the medieval-style setting and atmosphere of Narnia itself should be changed — only the era that the children from our world come from.

Incidentally, this whole topic now has an episode of the Talking Beasts podcast dedicated to it, and it's a really interesting discussion: Would Updating Narnia Be the Worst Idea Ever? 

@courtenay 

Right. So 1940’s or to this day?  

CS Lewis doesn’t give details about why the Pevensies are sent away from London. The does say during the war because of the air raids, but it doesn’t go into detail about the war itself. 

I would say that even if our world was set later than the 1940’s, staying close to books as much as possible will count for something. 

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

@courtenay 

Right. So 1940’s or to this day?  

If you're asking for my personal opinion on that, I've already written about it earlier in this discussion thread. In short, I can't see any way in which changing the time period to the present day would actually enhance the stories, and I can imagine it causing a whole lot of unneeded problems, so I'm not in favour of it. 

@courtenay 

Oh, I’m not asking for your opinion. I was just emphasizing the question.

I’ve seen some movies based on classic novels that were set in the present and even though they are well done, it almost gets too distracting.

That might be a problem with a present day Narnia film. Even it could be well done, it would most likely get too distracting. 

I was thinking about this recently. Some of the metaphors Lewis uses just won't make as much sense to modern kids. The example I was thinking of was near the end of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Lucy was looking at the shadow of the ship and comparing it to a train going through a cutting bank. But this is the sort of thing that wouldn't come out in a film/TV adaptation anyway. I'm just wondering if, if Jesus doesn't come back in the next 200 years, kids in the future will find it harder and harder to relate.

Language does change quite a bit. The King James Bible, for example - modern readers can get the gist of what it's saying, but are going to miss a lot of the nuances. And a lot of modern Shakespeare books for kids have notes and modern paraphrases side by side. Maybe there will be "annotated" versions for kids in the future explaining some of what Lewis meant. It's kind of wild how much language has changed even in the few decades since Lewis wrote it. His use of words like "gay" seem dated even now. And sadly, modern readers are likely to see the part where Uncle Andrew views Polly as "attractive" right before he tricks her into taking the rings as much more sinister than it is.

Overall, I think the better solution is to keep the stories as they are. We wouldn't rewrite Shakespeare's plays to make them easier to relate to now, but we do have to work harder to explain them. But there's so much treasure there that it's worth the effort to mine it.

@starlit 

I actually agree about not wanting to rewrite Shakespeare’s plays to modern English. Even though the French musical of Romeo and Juliet is well done, the broadway style does seem out of place.

You’re right. It’s usually best to keep the stories like Narnia as they are. I mean, anyone now can probably write a fantasy series, maybe even something similar to Narnia, that is set in our world during this day, and that would be fine. But Narnia should perhaps be left alone. 

A modernized Narnia would never work just as another time period different from the 1940’s would be out of place in a film. I hope it is not even attempted since the book is very clear about its time settings in our world and Narnia. C. S. Lewis knew what he was doing when he created the time settings for the books.  It is just as important to preserve time settings as to save dialogue and plot as much as possible, although the shortened form is necessary for the film. It can be done without ruining the book as previous audio versions of the stories such as Focus on the Family have been successful. 

Interestingly, this surviving clip from the mostly missing 1967 ITV adaptation suggests that the setting was likely moved to the present day. Or, at the very least, that the WW2 setup was dropped. 

@lentenlands well, it was 20 years since the war, and in the modern approach of the 60s, it's no surprise that the war background was omitted. This was the production with the children dressed in contemporary clothing and hair styles for the mid 60s. 

Posted by: @lentenlands

Interestingly, this surviving clip from the mostly missing 1967 ITV adaptation suggests that the setting was likely moved to the present day. Or, at the very least, that the WW2 setup was dropped. 

That's really interesting.

I think that line of dialogue about "their parents being away on an Archaeological expedition" shows how easy it is to provide the necessary exposition, and how little it actually matters to the story.

It's essentially just "because reasons" and then get on with the actual story