Press Release Criterion Press Release: After Hours (1985) (4k UHD Combo) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman (Rosanna Arquette). So begins the wildest night of his life, as bizarre occurrences—involving underground-art punks, a distressed waitress, a crazed Mister Softee truck driver, and a bagel-and-cream-cheese paperweight—pile up with anxiety-inducing relentlessness and thwart his attempts to get home. With this Kafkaesque cult classic, Martin Scorsese—abetted by Michael Ballhaus’s kinetic cinematography and scene-stealing supporting turns by Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, and John Heard—directed a darkly comic tale of mistaken identity, turning the desolate night world of 1980s SoHo into a bohemian wonderland of surreal menace.
​

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

• New 4K digital restoration, approved by editor Thelma Schoonmaker, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New program featuring director Martin Scorsese interviewed by writer Fran Lebowitz
• Audio commentary from 2004 featuring Scorsese, Schoonmaker, director of photography Michael Ballhaus, actor and producer Griffin Dunne, and producer Amy Robinson, with additional comments recorded in 2023
• Documentary about the making of the film featuring Dunne, Robinson, and Schoonmaker
• New program on the look of the film featuring costume designer Rita Ryack and production designer Jeffrey Townsend
• Deleted scenes
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley
  
  

• FILM INFO​

  • United States
  • 1985
  • 97 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • English
  • Spine #1185
• 
  
  New cover by Drusilla Adeline/Sister Hyde
  
  July 11, 2023

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. As an Amazon Associate, HTF earns from qualifying purchases. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

See on Amazon See on Amazon

 

[ahollis]

This wonderful news. I really enjoy this quirky film. Looking forward to having this in my library.

 

[titch]

Yes! A much awaited Scorsese. 4K is just the icing on the cake.

 

[albert_m2]

I don't know why this wasn't released on blu ray, but looking forward to it.

 

[Jeffrey D]

 

[FincherFan]

as already previously mentioned, since this was never on blu-ray, is the version currently on HBOmax the 1080p version from this new blu-ray?

when it appeared a week or so ago, i took a quick look at the first five minutes & it looked better than any version i’d seen in the past on basic cable or otherwise.

also, why would a film made in the mid 1980’s have mono audio? i’m guessing this was a low budget film (4.5 million per wikipedia), but it seems strange for it to not even be in stereo at the very least.

 

[SD_Brian]

also, why would a film made in the mid 1980’s have mono audio? i’m guessing this was a low budget film (4.5 million per wikipedia), but it seems strange for it to not even be in stereo at the very least.

Mono was not uncommon in the early-to-mid 80s for non-blockbuster movies. I recall Tim Burton talking in the commentary for Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) that he had to fight with the studio to get stereo on that movie because the prevailing wisdom at the time was that the box office returns on comedies and dramas didn't justify the added expense of a stereo mix.

 

[JoshZ]

The Terminator (1984) was also famously mono, which became an issue when the studio later did a 5.1 remix for DVD and decided to replace a bunch of the original sound effects with library recording substitutes.

 

[Lord Dalek]

They were still making major studio films in monaural as late as 1988. For what its worth, this was Scorcese's final movie in mono. Beginning with Color of Money all his films were in Dolby Stereo and eventually DTS beginning with Casino. That was definitely a change as up to that point only Last Waltz and Raging Bull were stereo.

 

[FincherFan]

i can totally understand that 5.1 audio or similar would be a bit pricy, but i had no idea that stereo would add that much more to a budget. i suppose i need to research more, but when i think of 80's era films i like, i'm guessing (assuming) they were at least stereo. such as The Breakfast Club or Less Than Zero or Pretty in Pink or Say Anything. perhaps they were because so much music was involed in their soundtracks . . .

 

[Lord Dalek]

The following films were mono in 1985:

The Mutilator
Rockin' Road Trip
Too Scared to Scream
Walking The Edge
Tuff Turf
Blood Simple
The New Kids
Heaven Help Us
Mischief
The Breakfast Club
Fast Forward
Into The Night
The Mean Season
Certain Fury
Lust in the Dust
A Private Function
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Sure Thing
Ghoulies
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning
The Hit
Mask
Lost in America
Sylvester
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Porky's Revenge!
The Care Bears Movie
King David
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
The Slugger's Wife
Alamo Bay
Just One of the Guys
Code of Silence
Gotcha!
Gymkata
Movers & Shakers
Private Resort
Creature
Goodbye, New York
Ordeal by Innocence
Warriors of the Wind
The Stuff
Red Sonja
The Lift
The Coca-Cola Kid
Day of the Dead
The Man With One Red Shoe
Wetherby
The Heavenly Kid
Kiss of the Spider Woman
National Lampoon's European Vacation
Summer Rental
Key Exchange
Return of the Living Dead
Volunteers
Better Off Dead
Godzilla 1985
Teen Wolf
American Ninja
Compromising Positions
Smooth Talk
After Hours
Creator
Marie
Invasion USA
Sweet Dreams
A Zed & Two Noughts
Silver Bullet
The Holcroft Covenant
Re-Animator
Wild Geese II
Death Wish 3
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
Target
Transylvania 6-5000
My Beautiful Laundrette
Once Bitten
Bad Medicine
Fever Pitch
Fool for Love
Clue
Trouble in Mind
The Trip to Bountiful
Making Contact

1985 was the last year where mono films widely outnumbered ones in Dolby Stereo 2.0 or 4.1. The following year, Ultra Stereo was introduced which was a lot cheaper to mix in.

 

[SD_Brian]

i can totally understand that 5.1 audio or similar would be a bit pricy, but i had no idea that stereo would add that much more to a budget. i suppose i need to research more, but when i think of 80's era films i like, i'm guessing (assuming) they were at least stereo. such as The Breakfast Club or Less Than Zero or Pretty in Pink or Say Anything. perhaps they were because so much music was involed in their soundtracks . . .

5.1 didn't start to be widely used until after Jurassic Park in 1993.

 

[Museum Pieces]

This is such an influential movie for me. It totally flipped how I watched movies and what I realized I could--and should--expect from them. I can't wait for this release.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Preorder is up, post #2

 

[JoshZ]

5.1 didn't start to be widely used until after Jurassic Park in 1993.

Dolby Digital 5.1 debuted in June 1992 with Batman Returns. Jurassic Park was the first DTS 5.1 release the following summer.

(This doesn't contradict your point. Just throwing some additional trivia out there.)

 

[Grady Reid]

Plus the majority of screens in the US were small box theaters with a single speaker behind the screen. Leon Vitali talks about this in regards to FULL METAL JACKET, the importance of having a good mono mix because you couldn't rely on every screen to have a decent sound system.

 

[Jason Goodmanson]

I've never seen this movie before, but everyone seems excited about it so I may have to check it out.

 

[ahollis]

The two theatre companies I worked for back during the Dolby Stereo beginnings only installed Dolby in the biggest screen. It wasn’t until the early 90’s that all screens were retrofitted or installed during construction with some type of stereo.

Side note: our head film buyer talked one of our partners into installing Dolby in this wonderful single screen theatre for the release of Urban Cowboy. He ended up with egg on his face when it wasn’t released in Stereo. Those early 80’s to the early 90’s was an evolving period for digital stereo sound.

 

[SD_Brian]

Dolby Digital 5.1 debuted in June 1992 with Batman Returns. Jurassic Park was the first DTS 5.1 release the following summer.

(This doesn't contradict your point. Just throwing some additional trivia out there.)

To add even more trivia, the first movie released in 5.1, under the guise of "Dolby Stereo 70mm Six Track," was Apocalypse Now in 1979.