MARRAKECH, Morocco — For a filmmaker best known for his violent revenge trilogy — “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” (2002), “Oldboy” (2003), and “Lady Vengeance” (2005) — Park Chan-wook is surprisingly calm, even serene. The day before I sat down with the South Korean director, he had participated in a master class here at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where he provided long, thoughtful responses to questions about the entirety of his career, from his first two failures, his stint as a film critic — which he claims he began because he couldn’t get anybody to review his earliest work — and his ascension into the pantheon of auteurs.The day after the master class, I sat down with Park and his translator for a few minutes to expand on some of the most fascinating things from his previous talk, including the positive and negative of Alfred Hitchcock, his work in film criticism, and adapting to the arrival of the digital world.Yesterday, you mentioned the effect Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” had on you when you first saw it. Is he still a filmmaker you think about in relation to your own work?Well, there was one time when I wanted to try to run away from Hitchcock, after I made my first two films. I didn’t learn properly from Hitchcock in terms of working with actors and I was treating them just like walking and talking props, if you like. It wasn’t Hitchcock’s fault really; it was my fault for not learning from the master properly. At the time, after making those two films, I said to myself, “I need to stay away from Hitchcock’s approach.” After that, I have come across the work of many other directors and many other artists, but I can’t really say I’ve been influenced by one particular [over another]. When I made “Stoker” I realized that my career, which started under the influence of Hitchcock, had come full circle in a way. It was a fateful meeting, if you like, that I came across the script that was clearly also under the influence of Hitchcock. So much so that I said to myself, “I should make sure I make a point of not making [this] a Hitchcockian film.”So that relationship with Hitchcock is constantly shifting?I have to say first of all: those two first films I made, when you look at the result you wouldn’t think they have the influence of Hitchcock. The influence was in the mistaken way to handle actors. But having said that, right now, in terms of the process of making films, I feel I’m actually veering more toward how Hitchcock would make films. To be specific, in the first two films I made, I never used storyboarding. Now, I make meticulous storyboards for the entire film. I’m trying to get closer and closer to how Hitchcock made his films.You share with Hitchcock a desire to have a certain amount of control over the film. But is there also the desire to make something looser, where you give up some of that control?Right now I don’t foresee myself going in that direction, but you never know. You can’t tell what’s going to happen in the future so I can’t make any guarantees that I won’t. To me it feels like, for a while, I won’t be working like that. I’ve worked on some short films with my brother that may appear to be looser, have more freedom, and rely on more freedom. But even though they appear to be more improvisational, we actually went in and storyboarded the whole thing. So I think I can make a film that appears to be improvisational and thought up on the spot, but even I would still meticulously plan for it in advance. And let’s say in terms of performance, you can say my actors are more like classical musicians than jazz musicians. That’s not to say that classical musicians don’t bring their own interpretation to their performance. They do. It’s just a slightly different approach.How did practicing film criticism earlier in your career change the way you make films?When I started out working as a film critic I had no other choice than to work as a film critic. I thought to myself, I’m not doing this just to [buy] diapers for my baby. There is some relevance to my art, this will be in a way a study and have a good influence on my future career as a filmmaker. But looking back now I don’t think it has helped that much. They are two separate categories. I’m not trying to say working as a film critic doesn’t have value in it. It does. Let’s flip it around — if you’re a filmmaker will it make you a good film critic? I don’t think so. One thing that has set me apart from other filmmakers, having had this experience of working as a film critic, is that I don’t hate people who write bad reviews. It’s their job to put bread on the table, and of course you would want to write a unique review. I appreciate that, it’s their job. I get less angry about bad reviews.Even though you don’t get angry, do you read the bad reviews? Have you ever been convinced by a bad review?Well, to be honest, I don’t shun reading reviews, but at the same time I’m not an avid reader of reviews. I sort of browse through the reviews, and if it looks like it’s going to be a bad review I sort of push it away [laughs]. And if it’s good reviews, I feel a little flushed reading praised. I don’t know about people in the West, but for me reading compliments can be embarrassing. I try not to read too much about the films.Francis Ford Coppola spoke a lot earlier this week about the future of cinema. Do you have thoughts about where film is going, or if it will even be called film?You’re right — maybe we should start calling them files. Maybe we shouldn’t even say shooting anymore, but that we’re creating a file. But I don’t really like that I have to work in the digital format. If possible, I would like to still make films on film. In Korea, labs are completely gone. “Snowpiercer,” which I produced, was the last film to go through that process [in Korea], the last to be made on film. But in America it’s still possible to shoot on film. As much as I’m allowed I would love to shoot on film and screen on film prints. But at the same time I know we’re going through a change, and I alone can’t stop the current. I have no choice but to adapt to this change. I wouldn’t say I can foresee the future of film, or go one step ahead of other filmmakers, to lead or pioneer the new world. I would stay behind and follow trend and make sure I don’t fall off it.
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