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.
