As with the interview with Mr Gregson-Williams, I will translate this to English.
At the age of eight years, the young Douglas Gresham made the acquaintance of the author, C.S. Lewis. Having left an alcoholic, violent and fickle father, the small American followed his mother to England to meet the English author with whom she corresponded for some time and whom she married a while later. It was a disappointment for the young boy who imagined meeting a knight in shining armour just like the king Peter and not the good-natured scholar. Nonetheless, getting to know this odd and warm-hearted gentleman changed his life for the better. Today a pastor, Douglas Gresham is in charge of preservation and development of the cultural and spiritual heritage left by C.S. Lewis, with passion and devotion. Here's a look at every instant towards an inheritance all demonstrations of which he supervises: written, films and even video games …
How did you discover the world of Narnia?
It is first my mum who read me The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe shortly after its publication, in 1950. I was a small boy and I started to read each of other Chronicles as they came out.
You lived with C.S. Lewis. Do you know if the Magical Wardrobe indeed exists?
For what I know about it, I think unfortunately that it is only about a literary device to get four children of our world in that of Narnia. It happens that two American universities claim each of having the true Magical Cupboard, but it is in fact only about very banal cupboards which were in our home in Oxford!
You participate with C.S. Lewis Company to promote and to perpetuate the literary inheritance of your stepfather. Can you speak to us about it?
Jack died when I was only 18 years old and his inheritance was not really part of my concerns at this age. But when his brother left us ten years later, the literary agent in load of the rights of the writings of C.S. Lewis began consulting me on different aspects, and that's how I more and more put myself into this job. Very quickly, in view of the evolution of our societies, I realized that it was necessary to found a true company the role of which would be to promote the whole Jack's literary work, the Chronicles, of course, but also all its other writings, to make them approachable to most general public. My personal ambition was as since the departure to make sure which these stories can pass on big screen. As you know it, it went well, and I think it will keep me busy for the rest of my days!
They understand your investment better on the film produced by Disney and Walden Media.
It is a plan which I nourished for numerous years, and I think that God made me wait so much to make sure that technology is finally there to give justice in these splendid stories. I was lucky as it puts on my path Walden Media, a company which produces films in the same mind as us, family films which educate and distract all at once.
The Chronicles of Narnia are considered by some to be a true Biblical metaphor. What do you think of it?
I think that it is unavoidable for somebody such as Jack, who dedicated his life so profoundly to Christ. All you write can only be inspired by your creed.
But it was not always case. They notably remember debates which it had with Tolkien, which reproached him for the coldness of its creed.
Jack was brought up in a Christian family, but his different experiments, and notably during the First World War, made that he very early lost creed. He could not conceive a God of Love who can allow these atrocities in trenches. And, it came there to want God not to exist, and this progression has him allow to find the sense of its creed. His colleagues in the university, and among them Tolkien, were Christian, and they helped a lot it on this way. These men were not afraid to speak openly about their creed and, being a man of fairness and the truth, it touched Jack and could only allow him to find Christ.
In these conditions, how do you explain this unpublished mixture between Christianity and pagan mythology which goes through the Chronicles?
To understand it, I think that it is necessary to come back to the sources of what is a myth. This word does not mean « something that does not exist ». Big mythologies meet in a point: try to explain or to find a reason in the marvels which encircle it. The man always tried to find the origin of things and miracles which occur every day under our eyes: the tree which is born of a simple kernel, the change of seasons, etc. In the sense, the Bible is undoubtedly the most essential book in the explanation of the origin of things, since Abraham until today. Jack had studied all these founder myths and he liked these stories because they all strove towards the truth of God. In these conditions, for him, they had their place in the middle of Christian literature. It is the reason for which it inserted them into The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. For his part, Tolkien firmly disapproved of it. It was a purist in his vision of myths and he did not like this mixture. It did not prevent Jack from making it and from persisting in this approach by creating the world where all myths could live together: Narnia.
What do you think of the treatment of the Chronicles by Andrew Adamson?
If you are talking about the approach of the film, I shall say that it is about a mixture between my approach of the Chronicles and that of Andrew. I was at the same time the specialist of Narnia, but also the specialist of his Christian dimension as co-producer. For his part, I think that Andrew had every reason to put reservations in this purely religious approach. It is my personal comprehension of the Chronicles. However, the first ambition of the film was rather to offer a faithful adaptation of the book. Indeed, if they find a Christian symbolism in the book, they will find it of course in the film. But it was necessary force trait under no circumstances.
Did you speak about your approach with the composor, Harry Gregson-Williams?
No, and precisely for the reasons of intellectual fairness about which I spoke to you a moment ago. I think that it is essential to leave the artists free to interpret a book or a film in their manner. And it seems to me even more critical with a musician than with any other artist. It is the reason for which I met it only after it ended up writing its music – which I think remarkable. He is an unusually gifted artist and I had great pleasure to talk with him.
Does the partition of the WORLD OF NARNIA correspond to your musical tastes?
I have very eclectic tastes. I like all music on conditions that they are made with the heart. It goes of old rock 'n' roll to pop music, by way of the country and classic, particularly Mozart, Vivaldi and Beethoven. In it, the partition of the WORLD OF NARNIA could only delight me, how it delighted the whole world!
You also participated in the elaboration of the video game of Narnia.
As on the film, I acted as consultant. It is a very interesting process of creation that the manufacture of such game. On the one hand, they try to be the most faithful to the possible film, while introducing innovations linked to interactivity. First of all, I tried to influence and to stimulate the concepteurs of the game regarding the manner of playing it and effects which he could have on one or several players. And I think that we reached across the idea of collaboration there notably between the figures, what is rather rare and rather innovative in the world of video game. You can represent each of four children Pevensie in turn, and your success depends precisely of the manner they are going to interact and help each other.
Do you think that a video game can promote the deep stocks of the book and the film?
I am not sure that video game is bearing of moral stocks for the time being because technology is not still enough evolved to allow us to make what we had planned to make with this medium originally, but things evolve very fast in this direction. However, I think that video game is a powerful help in the promotion of the ethical and moral stocks contained in the book by encouraging it to read the work which inspired this game.
How do you explain the prodigious success met by Narnia? In other words, according to you, what Narnia has to bring us in our lives, today?
Many essential things. First of all, Narnia allows us to find something key that we lost. Jack was a man of the 19th century. The most part of its culture and its training was forged in this epoch. Today, we lost these stocks as the sense of responsibility, personal investment, fairness, courage and the sense of duty: so many stocks which cherished the men of the 19th century and from whom we turned away. Today, we must realize that we must find and make these stocks without who our societies is doomed to failure. These priceless stocks the well-grounded of which is precisely shown in the Chronicles of Narnia, and particularly in the The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. That's why I think that interest for the film, reading of pounds and studies of Narnia are acts of a bigger importance and a range however our societies they think of it.
In the sense, the production of Prince Caspian must be for you a source of hope and joy.
In effect, and I work precisely at present on it. We are only at the beginning. We left again for a big adventure! …
