well, if you have visited here for a review of the documentary about London's (in)famous Scala cinema, there you go, it's in the title. anyone wishing for more is of course very welcome to read on, but for a slightly expanded shorter version one would be wise to simply listen to the mythology and urban legends of the place rather than watch this documentary. and it brings me no pleasure to say so, look you see.
provenance of my (signed by someone or other; actually i think two people have) copy? that there fopp shop in London (innit). whilst purchasing some other items (The Holy Mountain and a few other things) i noted it on the counter. my immediate thought was "oh, that's the cinema what got closed down for holding a screening of A Clockwork Orange in the early 90s". the bloke on the counter, obviously keen to upsell but also quite passionate about it, explained how the initial run of signed copies sold out and it really was worth watching. so, despite the eye watering price for a singular single fancy video (disc) of just south of £18 (!!!!) yeah, i took an expensive chance.
it might be that this echoes the actual cinema history itself. but it starts of really, really well and then soon becomes a boring, tiresome and very self indulgent drag. when i say starts well, it truly does. you get interesting snippets from interesting people like Mark Moore and a brief insight into how they managed to get away with screening films that were deemed not suitable for a more mainstream release. essentially, if interested, it was via being a "club" rather than open to the public sort of cinema.
mostly, and again this is at the start, one gets a sense of how incredible it all must have been, being able to taste the forbidden fruits of cinema in a seedy yet vibrant part of London (innit). essentially it presents itself, or the Scala, as being at the heart of the kind of London many (if not all) would love to be part of.
sadly this gives way to the London (innit) that few, if any, wish to be part of. with any actual details of the cinema, in terms of how it ran, being if not skimped over then simply ignored, you get the sense that it was a place which desperately wanted to remain all inclusive yet became depressingly exclusive. it's fairly clear that by the mid 80s onwards if you were not part of "the regular crowd" then you were most decidedly not welcome there.
yes, i did recall right. the fall out - mostly legal costs - of taking the decision to hold an illicit and not as secret as they thought screening of A Clockwork Orange brought the place down. one must remember the film was, contrary to popular belief, "banned" in the UK; rather it was withdrawn from release by Warner at the request of Stanley Kubrick. they (the owners of Scala) got done for copyright breach, and from what i could work out in court they openly admitted procuring a copy to screen via less than legal means. showing just how full of themselves they were the defence appeared to be "we wanted to show it, it's not a big issue". how self indulgent do you have to be to on the one hand claim to love cinema then on the other flagrantly ignore the expressed wishes of one of cinema's most gifted artists purely for self interest?
at a guess the only people who are ever going to really enjoy this documentary are those people who feature in it, or were some of the select (and if i am honest lucky) few who were considered part of the Scala crowd. we. as a world and a society, actually need a Scala again. everything is now just the touch of a button (or screen) away, the idea of rare and obscure films that can only be seen in certain places fades with every minute we move forward. but, sadly, this documentary ultimately screams that the world is better off without such.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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