Hoffman (Blu-ray) (Import)

One of the most unsettling films in the Peter Sellers canon, Hoffman sees the actor in a sinister starring role as a bachelor who obsesses over his secretary (Sinéad Cusack, Tam Lin, Revenge) and, discovering that her boyfriend (Jeremy Bulloch, The Spy Who Loved Me) has been fiddling the books at work, blackmails her into spending a week with him. Their time together reveals Hoffman’s tragic, lonely existence.INDICATOR STANDARD EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES New restoration from a 4K scan of the original negative by Powerhouse FilmsOriginal mono audioSelected scenes commentary with director Alvin Rakoff (2022, 25 mins)Strange Relationship (2022, 22 mins): Rakoff recalls Hoffman’s troubled history and his friendship with Peter SellersAn Underexposed Film (2022, 28 mins): focus puller Eddie Collins on the trials and tribulations of the shootHome Improvements (2022, 6 mins): draughtsman Terry Ackland-Snow discusses the film’s setsOriginal theatrical trailerLarry Karaszewski trailer commentary (2020, 4 mins): short critical appreciationImage galleries: promotional materials and behind-the-scenes photographyScript gallery: complete shooting screenplayNew and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearingAlvin Rakoff (Death Ship) directs a film which is by turns amusing, poignant and uneasy, and which boasts a central performance so uncomfortable and revealing that its star tried to have the film’s negative destroyed.