u/vvstp

For context: A heat check is a term in basketball used for a player who is has made serveral consecutive successful shots that decides to pull a risky or difficult shot to test their hot streak, thus the term heat check.

Referring to a director’s heat check, is when a filmmaker makes several successful films (whether critically or financially) consecutively, and decides to take a wild artistic swing with their next film to challenge themselves creatively, and the audience as much as possible.

Examples of a director’s heat check:
Francis Ford Coppola - Apocalypse Now
Lars Von Trier - Antichrist
Michael Mann - Miami Vice
David Lynch - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Jacques Tati - Playtime
Wong Kar Wai - 2046

This post was inspired by the great youtuber, Patrick (H) Willems in his video talking about Tenet!

Everything marked in green are films I’ve already watched, everything else is new to me!

1. I’ve already watched two from my haul, being After Hours and Beau Travail

2. Ever since I saw it on the shelf at my local B&N, I’ve been wanting to get The New World for my collection, I’m a massive fan of Malick and the box art is gorgeous

3. Every single one of these purchases have been blind buys (except for Blow Out) as I’ve been wanting to expand my international tastes and look into older films and less contemporary works

4. I’m hoping to add Yi Yi, Three Colors, Dekalog and The Tree of Life to my collection next as The philosophy behind those works intrigue me and aligns with my tastes (along with The Tree of Life being one of my favorite films of all time)

NOTE: The second and fourth slides are not my own Criterion copies but rather gifts for my family members, with the second slide being my dad’s birthday present (He’s a massive Scorsese and Kurosawa fan) and the fourth slide being a gift for my cousin who lives in Brazil (I wanted to put him on to some good films)