Eleanor Coppola, Polly Platt (The Last Picture Show; Targets), and Marsha Lucas (Taxi Driver; Star Wars), the Producer Wives of New Hollywood, were members of a generation of artists whose levels of talent we have not seen repeated until recently in the likes of Emma Thomas (Interstellar; Oppenheimer) and Zinzi Coogler (Locks; Sinners). Filmmaking, originally a feminine trade, has gone through periods of fierce gender segregation, forcing women into already under-celebrated roles such as editing, producing, and production designing. If a box set showcasing these roles is rare, then celebrating the essential women of that American New Wave is even rarer. But Lionsgate Limited has restored Eleanor’s groundbreaking behind-the-scenes documentary on Apocalypse Now (1978), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), in 4K UHD. It comes bound in a gorgeous book set with her other works, along with a photobook of Eleanor throughout the years — a love-letter to one of the most under-sung artistic voices of the ‘70s.
The Coppolas, Francis, Sofia, Gia, Nicholas, and Roman, have made filmmaking a family affair. Certainly, Sofia and Roman Coppola both received their first directing credits at such a young age because of Francis’s American Zoetrope production company. Gia also deployed the name, and cousin Nicholas became Nick Cage. Today, when regular working-class filmmakers are shut out of the industry, this would be popularly described as a “nepo” situation. While clearly advantaged, the tradition of the craftsman class is more applicable to the Coppola filmography, especially when encountering the work of Elanor as a connecting tissue.
L-R: Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola in her 1991 documentary HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKERS APOCALYPSE. Photo Courtesy of Lionsgate.
A graduate of USC’s fine arts school, Eleanor Coppola was not a trained filmmaker like her husband when he asked her to shoot the behind-the-scenes footage of Apocalypse Now. The distributor had asked for enough tape to cut together a five-minute TV spot to promote the film. Reacting to the negative press coverage of the runaway production, Francis made a nakedly political decision to kill two birds with one stone: give his wife, Eleanor, something to do while the kids were in school nearby, and keep the footage in-house so that he could destroy anything he felt was unflattering.
“I guess I’ve become the documentarian of the family.” – Eleanor Coppola
In the dual commentary track recorded in 2007, Francis and Eleanor discuss the decision in-depth, but separately. Here, Eleanor humbly admits to never having used a camera like the Aaton 16 mm that was purchased for her, teaching herself how to load it based on the included manual. She recounts leaving the lens cap on during filming, the 10-day development delay that prevented her from knowing she was shooting several days with a faulty magazine, and Francis assigning the dailies projectionist to be her production assistant.
Eleanor Coppola in her 1991 documentary HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKERS APOCALYPSE. Photo Courtesy of Lionsgate.
Hearts of Darkness is Eleanor Coppola’s crowning achievement, but it’s not everything she did, nor did she do it alone. Notably, filmmaker Les Blank (Burden of Dreams; A Taste of Tea) also contributed footage, at the request of Eleanor. One of the landmark featurettes of this box set is The Making of Hearts of Darkness, where EPK (electronic press kit) director Fax Bahr (In Living Color) sits for a talking head interview alongside Francis, Roman, and Sofia, to discuss his role in editing and writing the film. He joined the project when Eleanor handed him a box of her footage for the DVD release of Apocalypse Now in the ‘90s. He and George Hickenlooper (Factory Girl; Casino Jack) co-directed the final film with Eleanor, assembling the footage and arranging the original voiceover recordings, which were later re-done with Eleanor’s reading. Earlier, I referred to Eleanor ’s generation of women married to “great men” as “Producer Wives,” but really, only Polly Platt was a producer as well as a production designer. Marsha was a famously skilled editor, and Eleanor was an abstract artist and homemaker who found herself surprised, and sometimes frustrated, at her role as wife, not to her husband, Francis, but to the institution of “Director Francis Ford Coppola.”
“studio executives aren’t exactly known for their social courage” – John Millius
In the new featurette, “Eleanor Coppola: Art is All Around Us,” Roman recounts his mother turning their home into a literal exhibition, letting guests walk through and observe her family throughout the day. In Hearts of Darkness, Eleanor reveals a never-acted-upon relief at the idea of the family losing their new estate and all its upkeep if Apocalypse Now wasn’t a hit. This is a box set dedicated to Eleanor’s memory and her work, not her complaints. Instead, the most striking thing about Eleanor Coppola is that a man as famously braggadocious as Francis Ford Coppola was married for a life-time to a woman so carefully spoken.
Eleanor Coppola in her 1991 documentary HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKERS APOCALYPSE. Photo Courtesy of Lionsgate.
Hearts of Darkness is Eleanor Coppola’s crowning achievement, but that might be because so few got to experience one of her other works, Circle of Memory (2012). This set includes her unreleased short films, Peeling a Potato Is a Work of Art (1976), Victorian House (1976), Joyce Goldstein (1976), and Refrigerator (1976). They are all good, experimental micro-films revealing a counter-cultural, bohemian sensibility. Notably, Peeling a Potato is a Work of Art, just 30 seconds long, feels in-conversation with Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) by Chantal Akerman (New from Home). Yet, that film did not release in the U.S. until 1978. Where Akerman found a banal horror in the peeling of the potato, Eleanor found beauty, even auditioning several children to find the right voice, passing over a hopeful Roman. Also included is another short, made with less care, about something made with an abundance of it. Circle of Memory documents that traveling exhibition by the same name, but documentation is all it is. Essential, grateful video documentation of the installation set to music.
”John is very good at being grand” – George Lucas
From her memoir, Notes on a Life (2008), and the experience making Coda: Thirty Years Later would eventually come her own first feature, Paris Can Wait (2016). In between was Circle of Memory. It was a maze made of hay bales, stacked floor to ceiling. As one passed through it, you would find or contribute letters to the dead stuck into the side of the bales. At the center of the maze in a closed dome made of hay, a single strand of glowing sand dripped from the ceiling like an hourglass. The exhibit traveled to San Diego, Oakland, Sata Fe, Montpellier, Salzburg, Stockholm, and Oslo. It is quite moving to see documented both in the dedicated video and in Art is All Around Us. Scholars of the Hollywood New Wave and of the Coppola family can finally view this essential work which had previously only been documented via 14-year-old YouTube videos.
“Why can’t I have the courage to say that it’s no good?”
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse threads three timelines together: Apocalypse Now, the behind-the-scenes narrative, and the 1938 radio play adaptation of the novella “Heart of Darkness” (1899) by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane; Transformers: The Movie). The new 4K restoration is incredible, pulling out and separating the blue, white, and red tones of the film stock of that era in a beautiful way. In fact, the footage is so stunning in its restoration, that the key take-away from one of the other included documentaries, A Visit to China’s Miao Country (1996), is that you wish Eleanor had shot that on 16 mm instead of video so that it could also have been restored.
The key insight of Hearts of Darkness is that Francis Ford Coppola’s journey as a director had to mirror that of Martin Sheen’s (The West Wing; Apocalypse Now) Captain Willard. The decision to save Brando’s (The Godfather; Superman) shooting days for the end, a contested decision by the producers, is what saves the film. Like a young actor helped by a shooting in sequence, Francis was ready for an actor to question everything he went through before, and rail against both easy outs and infantilizing action sequences; a fresh artist to question the film like they were questioning war and the human condition. The manic exhaustion captured on screen is stupendous and informative. Looking at his filmography from One from the Heart (1982), a good film that bombed, all the way to Megalopolis (2024), one could say that succeeding in turning the mess of Apocalypse Now into a masterpiece was the worst thing that could have happened to Francis Ford Coppola. Chaos and exhaustion can be addicting in equal parts; just ask anyone who’s made a career of working on sets with their 12-hour days. He, however, would say that losing Eleanor was worse. Rightfully so.
Also included in this box set are Making of The Virgin Suicides (1998), Making of CQ (2002), Making of Marie Antoinette (2007), and Coda: Thirty Years Later (2007), which documents behind the scenes of Youth Without Youth (2007). There is also an introduction to that film by Eleanor. “I guess I’ve become the documentarian of the family,” she said during her talking head interview for Hearts of Darkness. The contributions of the wives of “great men” are always debated and rarely documented, but make no mistake, they are innumerable. Filmmaking is a great task that takes its practitioners away from their families, but doesn’t have to. The practice of the “Producer Wife” is the synthesis of a practical muse, bringing the family along, while consolidating power under one roof when dealing with corporations and commodification.
The fourth timeline of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is Eleanor’s, transforming from homemaker and outsider artist into a mainstay of filmmaking and education. Her oeuvre is one concerned with her home and her family, and through it, she solidified the legend of the Hollywood New Wave. A box set well-deserved and well preserved.
Hearts of Darkness: The Art of Eleanor Coppola 4K Collector’s Edition Special Features:
DISC 1: 4K UHD (Movie + Special Features)
- Legacy Feature: The Making of Hearts of Darkness
- Legacy Feature: Eleanor & Francis Coppola Audio Commentary
- *NEW* Lionsgate Limited Extra: Eleanor Coppola: Art Is All Around Us
DISC 2: BLU-RAY (Movie + Special Features)
- Legacy Feature: The Making of Hearts of Darkness
- Legacy Feature: Eleanor & Francis Coppola Audio Commentary
- *NEW* Lionsgate Limited Extra: Eleanor Coppola: Art Is All Around Us
DISC 3: BLU-RAY (SPECIAL FEATURES ONLY)
- Legacy Feature: Original 1979 Apocalypse Now Trailer
Lionsgate Limited Extras
- Hearts of Darkness Trailer (2025)
- Eight (8) Documentaries:
- A Visit to China’s Miao Country (1996)
- Circle of Memory
- Coda: Eleanor Coppola introduction
- Coda: Thirty Years Later (2007)
- Making of Marie Antoinette (2007)
- Francis Ford Coppola Directs The Rainmaker (2007)
- On the Set of CQ (2002)
- Making of The Virgin Suicides (1998)
- Four (4) Shorts:
- Peeling a Potato Is a Work of Art (1976)
- Victorian House (1976)
- Joyce Goldstein (1976)
- Refrigerator (1976)
Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray Combo May 29th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official Lionsgate Limited Hearts of Darkness: The Art of Eleanor Coppola webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews
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