Federico Fellini getting a shave on the set of *Juliet of the Spirits,* 1965.

François Truffaut, with cigarette in hand (and in sleeve), on the set of *Mississippi Mermaid,* 1969.

David Lean braving the Irish climate during the filming of Ryan’s Daughter, 1970.

Spike Lee on the beach at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.

Jean-Luc Godard filming the Parisian student protests in May of 1968.

*Top,* Sofia Coppola, surrounded by 18th-century court fashion during the shooting of *Marie Antoinette,* 2006; *above,* Agnès Varda lounging on the set of *Documenteur,* 1981.

John Ford, wrapped in his serape during the shooting of *The Searchers,* in 1955.

Dorothy Arzner, one of Hollywood’s first female directors, circa 1930s.

Pier Paolo Pasolini filming *Porcile,* 1969.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder sporting a bare midriff on the set of *World on a Wire,* 1973.

Peter Bogdanovich on the set of *Mask,* 1985.

Directors’ Cuts

A new book zooms in on filmmakers’ on-set wardrobes, from Federico Fellini’s fedora on Juliet of the Spirits to John Ford’s serape on The Searchers and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette uniform

By Nathan King

For proof that a director’s getup is symbolically important—even if he or she is mostly unseen by all but the cast and crew—one need look no further than Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. The documentary draws on Eleanor Coppola’s own film footage of the Homeric trials, tribulations, and travails that beset her husband, Francis, as he thrashed through the filming of his 1979 Vietnam War epic, Apocalypse Now.

The production was notoriously fraught. The film was shot on location in the Philippines, where the set was battered by hurricanes. A drink-and-drug-addled Martin Sheen had a heart attack just after his 36th birthday, taking him out of action for a month. And Marlon Brando, who signed on to play a mythic, jungle-dwelling Special Forces agent gone rogue, was in the binge-eating and cue-card-reading chapter of his career. All of this is writ large in Eleanor’s home movies from the 16-month shoot. (It was originally scheduled for a few months.)