Scala!!!

Scala: Sex, drugs and rock and roll cinema is a documentary film telling the story of the infamous Scala cinema renowned for its all-nighters in one of London’s once seedier parts, Kings Cross, attracting both film and non-film enthusiasts alike, including many future film illuminati. This is a vivid description of one of cinema’s fabled venues, its rise and fall, and the shenanigans in-between that left an indelible mark on UK cinema. Opening in cinemas in the UK & Ireland on 5 January 2024. BFI Player & BFI Blu-ray release on 22 January 2024.

Based on the book Scala Cinema 1978-1993 by Jane Giles a former programmer at the cinema this is an entertaining frolic through the history of a London cultural landmark, with its unmistakable white picture palace dome sticking out from the London skyline, a place so seemingly void of regulation it’s a wonder the cinema lasted as long as it did.

Told through the eyes of the folks that were there including many well known names in the film and entertainment industry such as filmmakers Peter Strickland, Beeban Kieron and Ben Wheatley who contribute amongst the revealing insights from those that worked there and the movie fans who dared venture through its doors.

The experience clearly left an indelible mark on them too with accounts that would have most people walking out before the trailers began. Comedian and journalist Adam Buxton describes the otherworldliness of the palace with the sound of the trains inside and the element of the unknown when leaving to face the late night (or early morning) streets of King Cross.

Ralph Brown who played the unmistakeable druggie Danny in cult classic With Nail & I worked at the cinema and recounts how he had his own dodgy side business there, very much in keeping with the character he would later become famous for playing. The box office staff too had their own halloucinagenic mushroom experiences that seemed to go hand in hand with the various vices in the cinema and the surrounding area.

The monthly programme was eagerly anticipated and was a piece of art work itself, designed by Mike Leedham and Patricia McGrath, fans were keen to find out what was showing next – which was unlikely to be showing anywhere else soon. The cinema provided the kind of innovative genre busting programming only found at quirky film festivals, its daily changing double-bills and unforgettable all-nighters introduced Shock Around the Clock horror, sexploitation, LGBTQIA+ and Kung Fu specials all at low prices and often for free – especially if you knew someone who could get you in!

Featuring some of the most revered alternative auteurs who pushed the boundaries of decency such as John Waters’ film Pink Flamingos (1972), whose ultra-bad taste film starred drag artist Divine and Curt McDowell’s Thundercrack (1975), whose film was in such bad taste it was played until the 35mm print disintegrated.

John Water’s eventually admits he got arrested for his filmmaking, which he laughs at the comparison with the Scala’s own run in with the law. The cinema was closed down after screening the then banned film, Stanley Kubrik’s A Clock Work Orange (1987). Unable to pay the fine and its lease about to run out the cinema’s doors closed for good.

If you thought cinema was just about Marvel movies and multiplexes this documentary will give you a reassuring shot in the arm that no consumer panel featured in the making of any of these movies. With its own resident cat likely to give you a fright of its own, it was described as the kind of cinema where it could be difficult to know which way to look for the most shocking spectacle.

It’s a great tribute to its founders and the people that worked there who shared their love and knowledge of film with as wide an audience as possible welcoming a community of misfits and vagabonds, whilst managing to inspire a few well known alumni of its own – not least the film’s writer and director, who incidentally, took the rap for the Clockwork Orange lawsuit!

Scala: Sex, drugs and rock and roll cinema, an accompanying BFI Southbank season of the Scala’s greatest hits, running throughout January with selected films on BFI Player.

Content Warning:
swearing, nudity, sex, violence, gore, drug use, suicide references, strobe lights