1930's film Cantilevered Lies

Cantilevered Lies and how it relates to 1930's film:

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Synopsis: Our two main characters live a high profile life in futuristic London, England, and the husband (Val) works as an architect. His new boss (one of Val’s old professor’s during his final year in design school) comes in after an unexpected death of the former boss. This is the quiet reserved Feodor Chaliapin. An otherwise low stress, successful work ethic of Val is disrupted by the new boss, Mr. Kafkes (Feodor) when he begins sabotaging his business and personal life. These evil sentiments are based on upon the fact that 20 years ago when he was brand new to the industry Val secretly stole one of Kafkes’s designs. It is sinister and uncalled for, but Kafkes seduces Val’s wife, and screws up his work as an architect, creating chaos...

Days later we find Kafkes dead on the ground floor of Val’s most famous building, the one he stole from Kafkes, after part of the building’s structure collapses onto him.  This reveals to Val, but no one else, that it was Kafkes’s own design flaw that caused his own death.  Since Val has taken credit for this building, the design flaw ruins his career as an architect.  Val debates whether to tell the general public that the building was not, in fact, his, which would clear his name but also be admitting to stealing the plans.  The movie ends with Kafkes’s funeral, with a monologue from Val describing the irony of the situation.  By dying, Kafkes finally got what he wanted.

Style: Our movie has an avant-garde style throughout with innovative lighting, deep space composition and thoroughly planned cinematography from Mr. Gregg Toland. These elements along with a foreign cast help contribute to an out of the ordinary futuristic feel.

Message: This movie has a recurring themes of karma and deals with the consequences of holding grudges. We tried to stray from a happily ever after type ending.

Studio: For this film we wanted to have overall control without having to worry about audience approval or the interests of big studios like MGM. This film is a work of art. That being said we decided to go with United Artists as our studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin,Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks,[1] with the intention of controlling their own interests rather than depending upon the powerful commercial studios.” Since we wanted to have a quality futuristic setting and some special effects (the building collapsing) we enlisted the support of Twentieth Century Pictures. 

Director: In this time period, British director James Whale is known for his work on Frankenstein and The Invisible Man which makes him a perfect fit for an avant-garde futuristic thriller.

Cast: The great British actor Laurence Olivier shines in his lead role as Val a successful architect living with his wife (Vivian Leigh) in future London. Our lurking antagonist Kafkes is played by the deep voiced Russian Feodor Chaliapin.

Hays Code: In some scenes (i.e. the technologically advanced shot of the building collapsing) there may be intense footage not suitable for some viewers, however the majority of the film abides by the Hays code. We hide any blood and violence and any seductive dialogue is completely implicit.

Focus: One of our goals in Cantilevered Lies is to show off the incredible cinematography skills of the young Gregg Toland. 

Disagreements? Nahhh: Our group worked extremely well together and we were all open to each others ideas. Plot, director, and studio etc. decisions were all mutually agreed upon and we are very proud of our final product. Hope you enjoy it!