1960 on 4K UHD

dir. Budd Boetticher

S-Tier Criterion 4K. Budd Boetticher Ranown Cycle western.

Criterion Collection · The Ranown Westerns: Five Films Directed by Budd Boetticher Starring Randolph Scott

dir. Michael Powell

S-Tier StudioCanal 4K. Michael Powell's 1960 horror that ended his career. The new 4K restoration played in art house theaters and the reception was strong. The old Blu-ray was never that good, so this is a meaningful upgrade. People love to point out this is better than Psycho, which came out the same year. Scorsese helped revive the film's reputation decades later.

StudioCanal · 4K + Blu-ray (United Kingdom)

dir. Alfred Hitchcock

S-Tier Universal 4K. Hitchcock's black-and-white photography has more detail at this resolution than the Blu-ray ever delivered, and the shower scene has never had this much information in it, for better or worse. The Bernard Herrmann score in lossless is half the reason the film still works as well as it does. Considered required viewing in any best-horror-discs discussion.

Universal Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Stanley Kubrick

Universal S-Tier 4K with a perfect 5.0 score. Kubrick's sword-and-sandal epic gets cited as a reference disc in every catalog discussion. The 70mm photography has more detail than a modern display can fully resolve, and HDR finally gives the gladiator pit scenes the contrast they need. Available for under $13 USD on Amazon as a standalone, same disc as the one in the Kubrick 4K box set.

Universal Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Georges Franju

S-Tier BFI 4K. Georges Franju's horror classic about surgical face transplants. The BFI disc is the one to own.

BFI · 4K + Blu-ray (United Kingdom)

dir. Billy Wilder

Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.

Arrow Video · 4K + Blu-ray (United Kingdom)

dir. John Sturges

Shout! Select's 4K dropped February 2023, the first time the Sturges original made the format. Bronson plays Bernardo O'Reilly, one of the seven, and the role still anchors his connection to the western genre for collectors. A German Magnificent Seven Collection also exists if you want Return of and the rest of the franchise packaged together.

Shout! Studios · Collector's Edition

dir. Jean-Luc Godard

A-Tier Criterion 4K. Godard's debut. StudioCanal also has a release, and the two may use different masters. Check which one you're buying.

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Sidney Hayers

A plastic surgeon and his nurse join a bizarre circus to escape from the police. Here he befriends deformed women and transforms them for his "Temple of Beauty". However, when they threaten to leave, they meet with mysterious accidents.

dir. Mario Bava

A vengeful witch, Asa Vajda, and her fiendish servant, Igor Jauvitch, return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant: Katia. Only a handsome doctor with the help of family members stand in her way.

dir. Nagisa Ōshima

A harsh young man seduces a freeloading young woman and eventually takes advantage of her knack for hitchhiking to rob middle-class men.

Radiance Films · Limited Edition

dir. Luchino Visconti

When a impoverished widow’s family moves to the big city, two of her five sons become romantic rivals with deadly results.

BFI · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Claude Sautet

Two men pull off a daring daylight payroll heist in Milan, making a fast getaway. One is returning to France after years in hiding, needing money to start fresh with his family.