Homage to the cinema of sin hits the UK’s big screens
A new documentary pays tribute to an iconic London picturehouse that offered a cinematic experience unlike any other…
Until its closure in 1993, London’s Scala cinema occupied a unique place in British celluloid heritage. Many creative types have launched careers after being inspired by its unique programming of trash and arthouse movies, while the stories surrounding the picturehouse are legendary: famously, x-rated activities didn’t just occur in the B-movies being shown on the Scala’s screen, but often in the auditorium too, especially during its all-nighters.
The chaotic history of this fabled cinema is set to be chronicled in a forthcoming feature-length documentary, 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>.
The distribution arm of the British Film Foundation (BFI) has acquired UK-Ireland rights to the film which charts the Scala’s rise and fall with intimate interviews and archive footage.
Scala was housed in a looming white building in what was a grubby Kings Cross, but it was never just a cinema; it was a club that broke all the rules.
The 96-minute movie tell the riotous inside story of the infamous sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll repertory cinema which inspired a generation during Britain's turbulent Thatcher years.
It features interviews with some of the cinema’s most well-known iconic celebrity patrons such as <Hairspray’s> John Waters, American Psycho director Mary Harron, musician Barry Adamson and There Will Be Blood producer JoAnne Sellar.
First-time directors Jane Giles and Ali Catterall describe the film as “a big screen love letter not only to the white goddess of King’s Cross but to the dizzy highs and depraved lows of a universally relatable cinema-going experience.
“For many disaffected young people, the Scala was a film school, foundation stone, and family. A crucial part of our DNA. A lifeline. A place to come out and stay out, all night long.”
Based on Giles’ 2018 book Scala Cinema 1978-1993 it uses archive film, photography, film clips, graphics, and animation, plus interviews with 49 Scala audience members to tell the story of a culture that existed like never before.
Produced by Alan Marke and Jim Reid of Channel X and Andy Starke of Anti-Worlds, the film received BFI Doc Society Fund backing, with further Kickstarter funding. Meet the Leader was proud to be one the film’s KickStarter backers.
BFI director of public programme and audiences told Screen Daily : “Cinema culture mattered to me growing up in London in the 80s and 90s when it was a window to the world, and there was no greater view than from the Scala.
“The Scala showed that it was OK to like ‘entertainment’, the avant-Garde and more risqué material. It all carried equal gravitas. SCALA!!! feels like being back in King’s Cross and is the perfect fit for the BFI.”
SCALA!!! premiered to a rapturous reception at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna last weekend. Co-director Ali Catterall posted on Twitter ‘They wouldn't stop clapping. Jane and I had already started weeping just before the end credits and then this. Applause that genuinely seemed to go on forever. Utterly surreal.”
Bravo! We can’t wait to watch!
*The full title of the film is 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.
Look out for screenings in selected cinemas across the UK and Ireland.
Find out more here.