We’ve already reported that Francis Ford Coppola gave his own film Megalopolis five stars on the cineaste site Letterbxd, but in a new chat with Deadline alongside his star Adam Driver, the Oscar-winning filmmaker explains what he thinks of the mixed reaction to the decades-in-development project. 

Coppola insisted his director friends are “very frank about” saying if they didn’t like a film — and apparently they haven’t said that to him. “I’ve been getting what I wanted to get from my colleagues” was how he put it. 

He later allowed of the public reaction to it, “No one says it’s boring.” He insisted “a lot of people will say, ‘Wow, I want to see it again,’ and the more they see it, the more they’ll get out of it,” relating it to the reaction to his Apocalypse Now.

For the record, Apocalypse was an award-winning film out of the gate — something that people incidentally pointed out after Megalopolis‘ “fake critic” controversy. 

“There are people who love the film. There are people who say, ‘I don’t know what I think,’ but they’ll see it again, and they’ll find something else in it — because there’s a lot in it.” 

Coppola seems to have also fielded a question about reports his Megalopolis set was disorganized — or possibly headlines of his alleged inappropriate behavior on set. It’s unclear because the trade’s questions were not recorded.

Nevertheless, Coppola said, “We’re witnessing the death of journalism and the death of the studio system. … For journalism to retreat behind unknown sources and … trying to get clicks, and saying something bad because you know that something bad will always get clicks, it’s sad.”

Driver called the production among his all-time favorite experiences as an actor.

Megalopolis is now in theaters. 

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