Edward And Caroline (12)

Studio Canal, £14.99

Casque D'Or (PG)

Studio Canal, £14.99

Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (12)

Studio Canal, £22.99

Le Trou (12)

Studio Canal, £22.99

In the wake of the season of his work which screened at London's BFI earlier this year, Studio Canal release four films by French director Jacques Becker, who began as an assistant to Jean Renoir in the 1930s and died aged just 53 in 1960, robbing the French New Wave of a director who could have provided an important elder statesman role – not that the snotty young pups of the French New Wave held much truck with elder statesmen, unless they were called Alfred Hitchcock.

The earliest film here, 1950 comedy of manners Edward And Caroline, is making its UK DVD debut and tells the story of a mismatched married couple and the pressures which come to bear on them at a socially awkward family get-together. Casque D'Or, one of Becker's most famous films, stars the great Simone Signoret as Maria, girlfriend to a gang member in Belle Epoque Paris who's killed in a knife fight by Georges (Serge Reggiani), the man who has fallen for her. Touchez Pas Au Grisbi finds Becker evoking the same violent Parisian underworld only in the present day as honourable gangster Max (the wonderful Jean Gabin) finds his stolen gold bars landing him in a game of cross and double-cross, all played out in a world of nightclubs, rain-soaked streets, seedy hotels and country back lanes. When British playwright David Hare was preparing to shoot Page Eight, the first in his trilogy of spy thrillers, he gave its star Bill Nighy this film to watch and told him to base his character on Gabin's Max.

The key title in this batch of releases, though, is 1960's Le Trou, Becker's last film and often thought to be his best. It's presented here in a pristine 4K restoration that does justice to Ghislain Cloquet's stark black and white cinematography and tells the (more or less) true story of a daring 1947 escape from Paris's notorious La Sante prison. It's introduced in a to-camera piece by one of the real escapees, who acted as a consultant and at the time of filming was a car mechanic. The drama that follows is as taut as any of the best caper movies and takes place largely in the single cell shared by the four escape planners – Geo (Michel Constantin), Monsignor (Raymond Meunier), Roland (Jean Keraudy) and Manu (Philippe Leroy) – and new arrival Gaspard (Marc Michel), on remand for attempted murder but innocent (he says) of the crime. Absolutely gripping.

The Transfiguration (15)

Thunderbird Releasing, £17.99

Debut director Michael O'Shea didn't hold out much hope when he submitted this artful, New York-set vampire movie/coming-of-age flick to the 2016 Cannes film festival – imagine his surprise then when it was selected to show in the prestigious Un Certain Regard strand. Shot using long lenses that put the camera at some distance from the actors – a technique used to great effect in another gritty New York film which bears comparison with The Transfiguration, the Safdie brothers' Heavens Knows What – O'Shea introduces us to loner Milo (Eric Ruffin), who lives in the Projects with his Iraq veteran brother Lewis (Aaron Clifton Moten). Milo is obsessed with vampires to the extent that as the film opens we find him in a public toilet drinking the blood of a man whose neck has been slashed open. In his down time, Milo watches YouTube clips of abattoirs or of lions feasting on prey. Into his world comes new neighbour Sophie (Chloe Levine), who self harms and is, like him, an orphan. As their relationship develops, O'Shea's nimble storytelling feints this way and that in its exploration of who – and what – Milo actually is. Spare in its use of dialogue for long periods, and almost devoid of music bar a few passages of menacing electronic drone, The Transfiguration is a quiet gem of a film.

The Graduate (15)

Studio Canal, £14.99

Given that this 4K digital restoration of Mike Nichols's famous film is released to celebrate its 50th anniversary, it's remarkable to think that not only is its star Dustin Hoffman still working – he features in Noah Baumbach's 2017 film The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) – but that he was already 30 when it was released in 1967. In terms of themes – Hoffman plays a young man who's seduced by an older female neighbour – it doesn't seem as sensational today as it did at the time. But in many other ways it has aged well. The wonderful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack still sounds fresh, Katharine Ross is still radiant and the theme of “teenage” alienation and inter-generational conflict will strike a chord in any audience. And of course Anne Bancroft's Mrs Robinson, cinema's alpha cougar, is still alluring. Extras include interviews with Hoffman and Charles Webb, whose novel the film is based on, as well as a newly filmed interview with producer Lawrence Turman and audio commentaries featuring Hoffman, Nichols, Ross and Steven Soderbergh.