The Criterion Collection UK and Spirit Entertainment have announced three UHD and Blu-ray releases for the UK in July, maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville's elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool, Le samouraï, Brian De Palma's American paranoia thriller, Blow Out, and Paul Brickman's irresistible piece of pop subversion, Risky Business.

LE SAMOURAÏ (France/Italy 1967) | UHD + Blu-ray | 15 July 2024

In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armour of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean‑Pierre Melville, Le samouraï is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology.

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Interviews with Melville and actors Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, and Cathy Rosier
• Interviews with Rui Nogueira, editor of Melville on Melville, and Ginette Vincendeau, author of Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris
• Melville-Delon: D’honneur et de nuit (2011), a short documentary exploring the friendship between the director and the actor and their iconic collaboration on Le samouraï
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Thomson, an appreciation by filmmaker John Woo, and excerpts from Melville on Melville

BLOW OUT (USA 1981) | UHD + Blu-ray | 22 July 2024

In the enthralling Blow Out, brilliantly crafted by Brian De Palma, John Travolta gives one of his greatest performances, as a film sound-effects man who believes he has accidentally recorded a political assassination. To uncover the truth, he enlists the help of a possible eyewitness to the crime (Nancy Allen), who may be in danger herself. 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 moviemaking.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• New 4K digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Interview with director Brian De Palma, conducted by filmmaker Noah Baumbach
• Interview with actor Nancy Allen
• Murder à la Mod, a 1967 feature by De Palma
• Interview with cameraman Garrett Brown on the Steadicam shots featured in the film within Blow Out
• On-set photographs by Louis Goldman
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Sragow and Pauline Kael’s original New Yorker review of the film

RISKY BUSINESS (USA 1983) | UHD + Blu-ray | 29 July 2024

A sly piece of pop subversion, this irresistible satire of Reagan-era materialism features Tom Cruise in his star-is-born breakthrough as a Chicago suburban prepster whose college-bound life spirals out of control when his parents go out of town for the week and an enterprising call girl (Rebecca De Mornay) invites him to walk on the wild side. While Cruise boogying in his briefs yielded one of the most iconic pop-cultural moments of the 1980s, it is the film’s unexpected mix of tender romance (enhanced by a moody synth score by Tangerine Dream) and sharp-witted capitalist critique that remains fresh and daring.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• New 4K digital restorations of the director’s cut and the original theatrical release, supervised and approved by director Paul Brickman and producer Jon Avnet, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
• Audio commentary for the original theatrical release featuring Brickman, Avnet, and actor Tom Cruise
• New interviews with Avnet and casting director Nancy Klopper
• New conversation between editor Richard Chew and film historian Bobbie O’Steen
• The Dream Is Always the Same: The Story of “Risky Business,” a program featuring interviews with Brickman, Avnet, cast members, and others
• Screen tests with Cruise and actor Rebecca De Mornay
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film curator and critic Dave Kehr