by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $12.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Barry Adamson, Nick Kent, John Waters, John Akomfrah, Rick Baker
Intro:
… an appealingly nostalgic experience …
The subtitle sums up London’s Scala cinema well enough: “The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World’s Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits.”
From 1978 to 1993, the Scala was a showcase for (among other things) all manner of extreme, avant-garde or simply old and hard to find cinematic fare. The all-nighters were a wonderful – if marathon – experience, and the audience itself was often something to behold.
The Scala had a rather complicated history, changing locations and residing for the longest time in the former Kings Cross Cinema – where, as recounted here by the great rock journalist Nick Kent, both Lou Reed and Iggy and the Stooges had played early gigs. There are a lot of interviewees/talking heads – too many, in fact – and what they have to say is repetitive, especially in relation to how welcoming the place was to misfits and “freaks” and its eventual significance in the gay rights struggle.
The doco could have done with a bit of trimming generally. Still, some of the anecdotes are amusing and there are plenty of very watchable film clips.
The boundary-pushing reached its peak – or rather nadir – with the showing of movies such as Salo and Thundercrack, but the screening which inadvertently sounded the Scala’s death knell was of A Clockwork Orange. (A fatal lawsuit from Warner Brothers ensued.) These days the venue survives as a music venue and nightclub.
Scala!!! is no great shakes really. But to the extent that watching it IS an appealingly nostalgic experience, it’s not so much because of what the place was as because of the contrast with how things are now. With arthouse cinemas shutting down all over the place, and more and more people preferring to just watch movies at home, there’s a strong feeling of “Those were the days” when watching the doco.
