For Martin Scorsese, the story of his 1985 yuppie horror-comedy After Hours began on Thanksgiving Day 1983, when the chief of Paramount Pictures, Barry Diller, informed him that the studio was essentially dropping out of The Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese’s long-gestating passion project. Scorsese felt utterly demoralized, but pulled himself out of one of the darkest periods of his career the only way he knew how: by shooting a movie. After Hours would prove a success at the box office in 1985 and go on to earn Scorsese the best-director award at the Cannes Film Festival. Last month, the Criterion Collection released a long-awaited Blu-ray edition, featuring a 4K digital restoration “approved by” the original editor, Thelma Schoonmaker. —Jake Malooley

You can read AIR MAIL’s oral history of After Hours here