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Arts & Entertainment

Repulsion: Roman Polanski Whines About The Pill's 'Masculinizing' Effect On Women

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Director Roman Polanski attends the 'La Venus A La Fourrure' Photocall during the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2013 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

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Roman Polanski, the brilliant filmmaker and also one of the last people on earth you want giving a lecture on gender relations, waxed nostalgic about the good old days before birth control at the premiere of his film "Venus in Fur."

Polanski described the film as a satire of sexism, so a reporter at Cannes asked Polanski how his views about women had changed over the years, according to AFP. He responded by lamenting the influence of birth control: "I think that the Pill has changed greatly the woman of our times, 'masculinizing' her..."

The same guy who was convicted of raping a 13-year-old decades ago called the leveling of the genders "purely idiotic." He said, "I think that now offering flowers to a lady becomes indecent, that's how I feel about it."

The film stars Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner as an actress rehearsing an adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's 1870 novella, "Venus in Furs." Mathieu Amalric plays the theater director.

Polanski described the male character in his new film this way: "There's this macho element in his character which is really coming to pieces and that was quite enjoyable. Whatever people think and know about me, the ones that do know about me know that I am not this way."

Cannes seems to be a great place for old men to rehash their "old-fashioned" views about women, like how they aren't funny and they secretly want to be prostitutes.

Related:
No Cannes Do: Jerry Lewis Can't Name One Female Comedian He Likes

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