Polanski: "The pill has chased away romance"

The legendary Polish director Roman Polanski has caused a stir at the Cannes Film Festival by claiming that aiming for female equality is "a great pity".

Introducing his  new S&M-themed film, 'Venus in Fur', which stars his wife, French actress, Emmanuelle Seigner, he complained "Offering flowers to a lady has become indecent … The pill has greatly changed the place of women in our times, masculinising her. It chases away the romance in our lives."

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Polanski's film, which has received positive reviews at the festival, is an adaptation of the successful play by David Ives about a theatre director (played by Mathieu Amalric) who is looking for an actress to play the dominating femme fatale in a stage version of the notorious 1870 novella 'Venus in Furs' by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, from whose name masochism is derived.

Polanski cast his wife  Seigner – at 46, 33 years his junior - in the role of Vanda, the  actress who comes to dominate the initially-powerful director. Polanski, however, denied any suggestion that parallels exist with his own life.

"The satire on sexism was very seductive," he said. "There was a macho element to [the director] character that was torn to pieces. That was enjoyable. People who know me know there is nothing like that in my personality, so it gave me great satisfaction to do it."

However, asked if he dominated his actors, Polanski smiled. "That's what the play's about – domination," he said. "I slapped them sometimes, but they never complained."

According to Seigner, the film is an attack on male directors who mistreat their actresses. "It can be humiliating, and we've all put up with it. So perhaps I'm avenging all the actresses on earth."

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As for the uncanny resemblance between Polanski and Amalric, the French star quipped: "My mother's coming to see the film tonight. She'll have to explain that to me."

Polanski was briefly detained by Swiss police in 2009 during a trip to the Zurich film festival, after the US authorities (still pursuing the director after he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor and fled the US in 1978) requested his arrest. He has no such fears of detention at Cannes. 'Venus in Fur' is his third feature to be selected for competition, and he won the Palme d'Or in 2002 for 'The Pianist'.