Exclusive Interview With Matila Malliarakis - Beyond The Walls

Most of the British audience will have only recently discovered Matila Malliarakis in the French serie The Returned. But in Beyond The Walls, out in the UK on dvd, he shows a different side of him, and in an exclusive interview with FilmLand Empire, he has come up with some very thoughtful answers about the film making process, LGB cinema and French tv series.

1) Your characters in Beyond The Walls and your relationship in it feel incredibly real. Did you have any input in the script? 

Most of it was already written into the screenplay, but David had a very clear idea of the characters, and is one of those directors who knows how to let the actors invent in the moment. Once we all agreed on the heart of the film, he trusted us enough to let us propose things, even if they didn’t initially correspond to the storyline.

FrightFest 2013: Day 1 - Haunted Houses & Haunted Tapes

Ah, FrightFest! My guilty pleasure among the film festival circuit. More than any other films, horrors demand to be watched in a huge, packed screen, with an audience who laughs and screams at all the right parts. And the audience at FF is probably the best in the world, the most fun, and also the nicest there is, respectful of any cast & crew which comes up on stage, and happy to put it with some truly atrocious films, as long as there is a fun decapitation involved. Last year brought us the unforgettable Tulpa, and the Chinese banquet incident I wrote a poem about. While this year did not have such memorable moments, or any films as exceptional as two I saw in 2011 (The Woman) and 2012 (Berberian Sound Studio), the general quality was higher. It was to be a year to remember for a sad reason, in an end of an era kind of way, but more on that later.

Beyond The Walls

In Beyond The Walls, what begins as an impromptu one-night stand between Illir (Guillaume Gouix), an attractively scruffy man with little time for romance, and Paulo (Matila Malliarakis), a confused and more sensitive young man, evolves into a more long term relationship due to unexpected circumstances. But no relationships is ever immune to what life throws at you and the trials of time.

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones

Clary (Lily Collins) is just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life of teenage sulkiness in New York City. Or so she thought, until she finds herself in the midst of a war between angels and demons, taking place in front of humanity's very eyes, but invisible to most of them. For Clary is a Shadow Hunter, blessed with supernatural powers, and whose role it is to protect humans. And she is thrown into action when her mum (herself a Shadow Hunter) is kidnapped by a demon. She must join other Shadow Hunters, finding out a few truths about herself along the way, and fulfil her destiny.

2 Guns

With a promising opening scene and clear markers towards a dialogue heavy film, two star header 2 Guns' simplistic title appears to be a marketing ploy to play up the action elements of the film, of which there are many. Denzel Washington as Robert 'Bobby' Trench returns to familiar ground of being a charismatic, intelligent, government trained capable agent who may or may not have the best of intentions as in Training Day (2001) and the more inferior Safe House (2012). Mark Wahlberg is Bobby's partner Michael 'Stig' Stigman, at times the opposite but always the equal of Bobby in terms of intentions and having a particular kind of skill set. 

Pi: Blu-Ray Release

Darren Aronofsky has got to be one of the most interesting and versatile directors working at the moment. He has a unique visual style but his cinema is never style over substance, on the contrary, he is never afraid to tackle some pretty ambitious subjects. And all of his qualities were very much apparent in his first film, Pi. Fifteen years after its original release, his first film is getting a 15th year anniversary release on Blu-Ray, so now is the perfect opportunity to discover it.

FrightFest & The Chinese Takeaway: A Poem

They say the arts are therapeutic. Some events are so traumatic that they get buried deep inside the dark depths of your psyche, unable that you are to face them. But the arts can help you heal the trauma, by letting you express yourself creatively and challenge those painful memories.

As we are nearing FrightFest, it is time to face my old demon, an event that occurred at last year's edition and got branded on my brain. I have only mentioned it to a few trusted people, in hushed tones, looking in the oblivion at the Lovecraft-like, unfathomable horrors that the memories conjured. Even now, nearly 12 months later, it is too raw to be openly talking about them. I could have drawn the event, I could have sung it. Instead, I have decided to write a poem about it. And I hope I will finally heal.