Back in the late 1980s I started going to the Scala cinema to watch all-night screenings of 1950s B movies, 3-D movies, science fiction classics, horror films and cult movies and saw films like Eraserhead, Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Necroromancer, Miracle Mile, Inferno, and a dozen other incredible films and cult masterpieces. It was closed down after showing Clockwork Orange once too many times. I loved that cinema and this documentary charts the history of the Scala from its original home on Tottenham Court to its final home in Kings Cross.
The Scala!!! was premiered at the London Film Festival, at a sell-out cast and crew screening and it was deeply enhanced by the palatable sense of love the audience had for the cinema!
It's a loving taking heads documentary filled with photos, vintage movie footage and reportage clips that talks to the denizens of this glorious cathedral to Shlock including movie directors, critics, authors, comedians, assorted punks, radical feminists, and members of the fledgling LBGTQ+community of the day. Charting it's heyday in the days of punk and rise of the new romantics. With a glorious soundtrack by Barry Adamson and music from the movies and utilising the unique sound of the Scala itself – caused by the running of the underground deep beneath its feet. This movie was a delightful and wonderful trip down memory lane, and I loved every second. Of all the people interviewed, John Waters, Adam Buxton and Stewart Lee shine out with their memories and I found myself transported back there.
The film features a brilliant cartoon drawn by the great Viz artist Davey Jones showing the interior of the Scala and a typical cross-section of a typical audience, including Boy George, Iggy Pop, Laurel and Hardy and King Kong, to name-check a few.
At one point during the film several of the pundits talk about the only way to survive the all-nighters was to take copious amounts of speed and drugs, and a great many of the audience went along more so for the 'alternative' lifestyle, and rampant gay sex in the bogs than the movies. Well I for one went for the films and stayed awake with copious amounts of black coffee and Polish Wiejska sausage. And the idea that anyone would go to the cinema other than watch the movies shown causes me total bafflement. I mean if it's a toss up between hard-core popper-fuelled anal sex or a Hamster-cheeked woman singing about heaven, I know which one I'm going for.
A great tribute to a great cinema and the pure nostalgic sense of euphoria it triggered was delightful. Plus it makes me want to go back and rewatch some of those films all over again!
R.I.P SCALA you were the dog's bollocks and no mistake.
9/10
The actual film won't be released nationally until January 25th.
Cartoon by the legendary Davey Jones, coloured by me.
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