If any British movie theatre deserved three exclamation marks it is the Scala, the subject of this richly enjoyable and informative documentary from Jane Giles and Guardian writer Ali Catterall. It was a unique grindhouse slash alt-cinephile repertory house which inspired generations of film-makers, artists and musicians, and its notional “club” status allowed it to show all sorts of outrageous and transgressive material: horror, sex, satire, drugs, vampires and bikers. The Scala also championed progressive, LGBT and pro-union causes.
The cinema was housed in a wonderfully stately building with a cupola in London’s scuzzy and pre-gentrified King’s Cross between 1981 and 1993; the building in fact now survives and thrives as a nightclub. The Scala also became legendary for its wonderful monthly poster-style foldout sheets advertising the forthcoming attractions which were sexier and more exciting than the earnest booklets in other cinemas; it became a movie theatre with the excitement of a 24/7 punk festival, not a college of further education. And this was the pre-Google, pre-YouTube age, when simply finding out about the existence of films, never mind actually seeing them, was very difficult.
As this film recounts, what made it special were the all-nighters (I remember the freaky experience), which in an age of dreary licensing laws and oppressively early last trains were a great late-night resource in the London of the Thatcherite 80s. In the end the Scala’s closure was not simply due to issues around rents and attendance figures, but also partly a battle about cinema and free expression. The programmers dared to show A Clockwork Orange which Stanley Kubrick had withdrawn from UK distribution on the grounds that he was getting blamed for copycat violence, and its distributors Warner Bros hit the Scala with a lawsuit that helped finish it off. A very entertaining madeleine for movie-going of the analogue age.
• Scala!!! is released on 5 January in UK and Irish cinemas, and on 22 January on BFI Player. Scala: Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Cinema runs at BFI Southbank throughout January.
