Scala!!!

This is a 'talking heads' documentary about the famous (or infamous, depending on your outlook on life) Scala cinema that operated in London's King's Cross from 1978 to 1993. It's a snapshot of an era - this place was the muster point for a ragtag group of misfits during Thatcher's uncompromisingly nasty reign. There's a fantastic array of interview subjects: actors Ralph Brown (who used to work there) and Caroline Catz; comedians Adam Buxton and Stewart Lee; directors Ben Wheatley, John Waters and Mary Harron;  musicians Matt Johnson (The The) and Douglas Hart (The Jesus and Mary Chain); as well as numerous less well-known folk who attended screenings or worked at the Scala in some capacity. 

The celebrity tales are fun but the meat comes from the staff - in particular one pretty tense retelling of a suicide at the theatre. And the building itself, still erect and acting as a nightclub not far from King's Cross Station, is the star of the film. Built around WWI, it began life as the King's Cross Cinema, briefly became a primatarium (!), then a live music venue (host to Iggy Pop and Lou Reed), before accommodating the Scala, which moved from Tottenham Street in 1981.

This kind of doco is the stuff of nightmares for editors with presumably hours of shot and gathered footage, so Edward Mills and Andrew Starke have done a terrific job to cut down it all down to a manageable 90 minutes. In amongst the chat there are old photos, poster stills, animation and a brilliant comic drawn by Davey Jones from Viz (he of the legendary Vibrating Bum-Faced Goats strip).

It seems variety was the name of the game, the listings were very pro-LGBTQI+ (John Waters was a staple), there was horror with 'Shock around the Clock' screenings, Russ Meyer Sexploitation flicks and Kung-fu films, the range of movies to see in any given month looked incredible, and the poster designs added to the attraction. The cheap all-nighters must have been amazing, the stickiness of the seats and floors, not so much.

As with all eras, this one came to an end, hastened along by the screening of one particular film in April 1992. A Clockwork Orange was still banned in cinemas and the decision to show it, though feted with the punters, led to legal action. The court case dragged on and eventually the Scala fell into receivership, though co-director (with Ali Catterall) Jane Giles says in a Guardian article that that wasn't the only reason for the eventual demise of the cinema. Film nerds and modern historians alike will have a good time with Scala!!! Or, the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits.

Scala!!! is screening as the closing night film at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, which runs from Sep 12-15 at The Dendy in Newtown.

See also:

It'd be rude not to mention some of the films that were shown at the Scala (and appear briefly in the doco), so: Bruce Robinson's peerless Withnail & I (1987), Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up (1966) and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) would have been amazing to see in that cinema, among many others.