Nicolas Winding Refn has defended Ryan Gosling's directorial debut Lost River, Digital Spy said.

The film made its premiere at Cannes to many negative reviews from critics.

However, the Drive filmmaker called the picture "beautiful", and responded to suggestions that there are similarities between the pair's directing styles.

"I think it's a beautiful, beautiful, great movie that will grow on people," he told New York Magazine. "There are images from it that still stick with me

"Because we're twins we make the same movie. Separated at birth, we found each other. That's the thing about twins. We stick together."

Lost River stars Christina Hendricks as a single mother who finds herself drawn into the dark underworld of a town in Michigan, and also stars Saoirse Ronan, Eva Mendes and Matt Smith.