The Criterion Collection and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have confirmed the titles to be released on Blu-ray in the UK in August 2021. On 2 August comes Blow Out, an American paranoia thriller unlike any other, as well as a devilish reflection on the act of moviemaking, Brian De Palma's classic film stars John Travolta in one of his greatest performances. Following on 23 August, the devastatingly witty Hollywood movie from Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve, the most deliciously entertaining film ever made about the ruthlessness of show business. Also on 23 August film noir Deep Cover arrives. This stylish and subversive underworld odyssey from veteran actor-director Bill Duke and starring Laurence Fishburne, is an unsung gem of the nineties’ Black cinema explosion.
BLOW OUT (USA 1981) | Blu-ray | 2 August 2021
In the enthralling Blow Out, brilliantly crafted by Brian De Palma (Sisters, Carrie, Scarface), John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction) gives one of his greatest performances, as Jack, a movie sound-effects man who believes he has accidentally recorded a political assassination. He enlists the help of Sally (played by Carrie’s Nancy Allen), a possible eyewitness to the crime who may be in danger herself, to uncover the truth. With its jolting stylistic flourishes, intricate plot, profoundly felt characterizations, and gritty evocation of early-1980s Philadelphia, Blow Out is an American paranoia thriller unlike any other, as well as a devilish reflection on the act of moviemaking.
DIRECTOR APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- New, restored digital transfer, supervised by director Brian De Palma, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New hour-long interview with De Palma, conducted by filmmaker Noah Baumbach
- New interview with star Nancy Allen
- Cameraman Garrett Brown on the Steadicam shots featured in the film within the film
- Select on-set photos from photographer Louis Goldman
- Original theatrical trailer
- More!
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Sragow and Pauline Kael’s original New Yorker review
ALL ABOUT EVE (USA 1950) | Blu-ray | 23 August 2021
In this devastatingly witty Hollywood classic from Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Cleopatra), backstage is where the real drama plays out. One night, Margo Channing (Now, Voyager’s Bette Davis) entertains a surprise dressing-room visitor: her most adoring fan, the shy, wide-eyed Eve Harrington (The Magnificent Ambersons’ Anne Baxter). But as Eve becomes a fixture in Margo’s life, the Broadway legend soon realizes that her supposed admirer intends to use her and everyone in her circle, including an acid-tongued critic played by George Sanders (Rebecca), as stepping-stones to stardom. Featuring stiletto sharp dialogue and direction by Mankiewicz, and an unforgettable Davis in the role that revived her career and came to define it, the multiple-Oscar-winning All About Eve is the most deliciously entertaining film ever made about the ruthlessness of show business.
SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Two audio commentaries from 2010, one featuring actor Celeste Holm, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s son Christopher Mankiewicz, and author Kenneth L. Geist; the other featuring author Sam Staggs
- All About Mankiewicz, a feature-length documentary from 1983 about the director
- Episodes of The Dick Cavett Show from 1969 and 1980 featuring actors Bette Davis and Gary Merrill New interview with costume historian Larry McQueen
- Hollywood Backstories: “All About Eve,” a 2001 documentary featuring interviews with Davis and others about the making of the film
- Documentaries from 2010 about Mankiewicz’s life and career, the short story on which the film is based and its real-world inspiration, and a real-life “Sarah Siddons Society” based on the film’s fictional society
- Radio adaptation of the film from 1951
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by critic Terrence Rafferty and the 1946 short story on which the film is based
DEEP COVER (USA 1992) | Blu-ray | 23 August 2021
Film noir hits the mean streets of 1990s Los Angeles in this stylish and subversive underworld odyssey from veteran actor-director Bill Duke (The Killing Floor). Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) stars as Russell Stevens/John Hull, a police officer who goes undercover as the partner of a dangerously ambitious cocaine trafficker (The Fly’s Jeff Goldblum) in order to infiltrate and bring down a powerful Latin American drug ring operating in LA. But the further Stevens descends into this ruthless world of money, violence, and power, the more disillusioned he becomes—and the harder to make out the line between right and wrong, crime and justice. Steeped in shadowy, neon-soaked atmosphere and featuring Dr. Dre’s debut solo single, this unsung gem of the nineties’ Black cinema explosion delivers a riveting character study and sleek action thrills alongside a furious moral indictment of America and the devastating failures of the war on drugs.
DIRECTOR APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New interview with director Bill Duke
- New conversation between film scholars Racquel J. Gates and Michael B. Gillespie about Deep Cover’s place within both the Black film boom of the early 1990s and the noir genre
- New conversation between scholar Claudrena N. Harold and professor, DJ, and podcaster Oliver Wang about the film’s title track and its importance to the history of hip-hop
- Panel discussion from 2018 featuring Duke and Fishburne and moderated by film critic Elvis Mitchell
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by Gillespie
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