“Scala” tells the story of a beloved London repertory movie theater with tremendous affection and humor by the people who worked there and the moviegoers and filmmakers who thrived on the venue’s innovative offerings. It opens this Friday at the Metrograph in NYC. There will be a director Q&A there on July 21. Go here for showtimes and ticket info.
The first location of Scala Cinema was in the basement of a famous theater on Charlotte Street that was once used in a scene from “Hard Day’s Night.” It was a socialist collective called Other Cinema then, changing its name to Scala Cinema in 1978. When the BBC bought the famous building the group relocated to the Odeon King’s Cross cinema in Pentonville Road and had a rocky but much heralded and beloved 15-year run until it closed in 1993.
The directors of the documentary, Jane Giles and Ali Catterall (a former Scala programmer), also wrote a now collectible 2018 coffee table book about the history of the film theater which includes scans of all 178 of the Scala’s beautiful monthly print calendars of programs. (The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles is a rare example of rep houses who still follow this practice. I wish I had kept similar programs for the rep house of my filmgoer salad days, the long defunct “Dream Theater” in Monterey, California, where I attended so many double features in the mid-1970s.)
Interviewees include America’s punk film master John Waters, who says that going to the Scala was “like joining a club, a very secret club, like a biker gang…” Mary Harron (“American Psycho”) describes seeing “Eraserhead” for the first time there. Psychotronic films promoter Bal Croce and comedian Adam Buxton attest to how uncomfortable the seats were. (The filmmakers were actually able to rescue one!) Jim MacSweeney, manager of a nearby gay bookstore, credits the Scala with introducing him to gay icons like Montgomery Clift; Scala also featured cult porn films like “Cafe Flesh.” A former manager tells the story of finding a dead man in the theater. (When I worked at the Janus Theaters in Greensboro I was told that a customer had once died while watching a film there too!) And they had a cat that roamed the theater! (Here in New York we love our deli cats but I’ve never been to a film theater that had a cat!)
The film also features funny, gorgeous animated sequences by Osbert Parker. The original music for the doc is by Barry Adamson, a one-time Scala addict, former member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the genius of cinematic-inflected music who contributed to the soundtrack of David Lynch’s “Lost Highway.” I’m a huge fan of his work so this was a special treat for me.
In an era where chains like Alamo Drafthouse and others are trying to rekindle the experience of watching films in actual theaters (with the added convenience of alcoholic beverages and food), “Scala” is a hugely enjoyable account of a later generation of what Philip Lopate once dubbed “the heroic age of movie going.”