`Trying to level genders is purely idiotic`, says Roman Polanski

Wellington: Famed French director Roman Polanski has criticized that the fight for female equality is a "great pity."

The 79-year-old Oscar-winner, who is at the Cannes Film Festival with his new film `Venus in Fur`, asserted that "trying to level the genders is purely idiotic," according to Stuff.co.nz. "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," the publication quoted him as saying. Polanski`s film is about the sado-masochistic relationship between a theatre director and an actress. The actress`s part is played by his wife Emmanuelle Seigner, who is 33 years his junior, and actor Mathieu Amalric takes the director`s part. Meanwhile his wife Seigner stole the show at the film`s premiere with her plunging red dress that reveals an eye-popping amount of cleavage. ANI