Scala!!! (2023)

"A Joyous & Nostalgic Celebration of a Unique Cultural Entity"

Following on from the utterly gorgeous book published by FAB Press on the very same subject, Jane Giles and Ali Catterall's documentary on the iconic Scala cinema gets a Blu-ray and Digital release (full detail of platforms below) from the BFI.

It's a fascinating, well put-together documentary that chronicles, through first-hand reminiscences from a wide variety of interviewees, the rise and fall of the London cinema (eventually based at King's Cross) whose audience was almost as bizarre and eclectic as the films that were screened there. 

The only place you could see stuff like Curt McDowells' 1975 THUNDERCRACK, Russ Meyer retrospectives, and even Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE in the UK (the illegal nature of which led to the cinema's undoing) I only attended the Scala twice in its heyday, for two of the Shock Around the Clock film festivals organised by Alan Jones and Stejan Jaworzyn, but I'm happy to testify that SCALA!!! really does convey the sticky, grungy, crazy atmosphere of what the place was like at that time. It was obviously loved by an awful lot of people and that love comes across in the 96 minute history we get of it here.

Extras include an extra hour of interview footage with the likes of Peter Strickland, Mary Harron, Douglas Hart, Kim Newman, Stewart Lee, Jane Giles and Stephen Woolley. Osbert Parker's animations and Davey Jones' cartoons for the documentary are also included in their entirety. There's the twelve minute London Film Festival introduction from programmer Jason Wood, in which he quite rightly states that all culture has value and  that something that means nothing to one person may mean the world to another, so don't be a snob. Wise words for us all to live by.

There's a short film included also called Scala, which is a 35 minute archival made for cable documentary, and you also get a four minute shot on video student film about the Scala in 1992. Three short 'Scala favourites' are also included - Relax (23 minutes), Flames of Passion (18 minutes) and Viv Albertine's Coping With Cupid (19 minutes). Cabinet of Curiosities is 18 minutes of curios from the cinema with narration by Jane Giles, who also talks us through 15 of the Scala's monthly programmes. Finally, Giles and Ali Catterall provide a commentary for the film.

The BFI's Blu-ray also comes with a booklet with original writing on the film from Jane Giles and Ali Catterall, plus even more memories from those who were there and a piece from Osbert Parker about his animations. Here's the trailer:

SCALA!!! is out on Blu-ray and on Digital on BFI Player, iTunes and Amazon Prime from Monday 22nd January 2024