Saigon in 2001 - making Graham Greene's "The Quiet American"

Saigon was buzzing in early 2001 when the crew remaking Graham Greene’s, The Quiet American, touched down. It was the first serious Hollywood production to shoot on location in Saigon.

Every self-respecting expat had read the book. For those of us working in travel, references to The Quiet American were everywhere - the Continental Hotel, the Majestic Hotel and other colonial era buildings along the old Rue Catinat, (now Dong Khoi St).

In the early nineties, the French had made two films in Vietnam to wide acclaim, The Lover and Indochine. Both are well worth a look. There were a handful of independent productions like French film Cyclo too. Cyclo’s interesting for a bleak look at 1990s Saigon.

The Quiet American, directed by Australian Phillip Noyce, represented a major shift - a big studio picture with a big name cast.

Photo: Mark Bowyer Caravelle Hotel, Saigon - during the making of The Quiet American, 2001

Photo: Eric Finley Caravelle Hotel, Saigon - during the making of The Quiet American, 2001

Photo: Mark Bowyer Caravelle Hotel, Saigon - 1993

Photo: Mark Bowyer The Caravelle today

 
Michael Caine played Fowler and Brendan Fraser played Pyle. The two main local roles, Phuong and General The, were played by young local actors who were well known around town - Do Thi Hai Yen and Quang Hai.

I’m reminded of The Quiet American shoot because I’ve been going through old photos and found these from that time.

I had a few friends involved with the shoot, so I got to take Brendan Fraser for lunch at Ngu Vien, a one-time favourite Saigon restaurant serving Hue cuisine in District 3.

Fraser was friendly and settled in well. He seemed to enjoy the Hue flavours. In retrospect though, I might have been better off holding back my enthusiasm for all things Vietnam, The Quiet American, and my fascination with the film. He probably needed a break from all that. There were no follow-up sessions. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the habit of collecting selfies in those days.

Michael Caine's wife Shakira called me for some shopping tips too. That wasn't my best moment in dispensing travel advice. I referred her to someone better qualified.

Expats lined up for bit parts in the film. One, Tim Bennett, scored a more substantial role, with dialogue, as the American photographer. Tim still lives in Saigon. You won't have any difficulty spotting him in the film.

If you haven’t seen The Quiet American, you should. Read the book too. It’s a prescient tale of the end of French colonialism in Vietnam and the transition to the American War. Most remarkable of all, it was written in 1955 - after the end of French rule and before the US involvement intensified.

Greene shows incredible insight into the mindset that would see the US sink ever deeper into the Vietnam mire.

It’s fascinating history, but it's a great yarn too.

The Quiet American shoot dominated Lam Son Square, the main square in the centre of Saigon, for at least a week.

Curiously, the Continental Hotel did not play itself in the film. Instead, a model was rebuilt in front of the Caravelle Hotel. There were two explanations going around town for this. The first was that the new set was created for obscure technical or artistic reasons. The second was that the folks behind the Continental Hotel, played hardball.

I don’t know which of these is true, but the Continental has been kicking own-goals for decades. We’re still waiting for it to become the iconic Saigon heritage hotel it should have been years ago.

The photos show the bizarre spectacle of the Caravelle Hotel done up as the Continental, as well as the day a bombing was staged in Lam Son Square.

In the years after Greene wrote The Quiet American, real bombs exploded around this area - one, in the Caravelle Hotel in August 1964. The Caravelle hosted the Australian and New Zealand Embassies at the time, as well the Saigon bureaus of major US broadcasters like NBC, ABC and CBS.

Months later, on Christmas Eve 1964, a car bomb exploded at the Brinks Hotel, where the Park Hyatt now stands. The Brinks was an Officers Quarters and two Americans were killed in the attack. A monument commemorates the Viet Cong bombing out the front of the Park Hyatt on the corner of Hai Ba Trung St.

There can’t be many US operated hotels in the world decorated with a monument commemorating an attack on Americans.

Photo: Mark Bowyer Brinks Hotel bombing memorial - Park Hyatt Saigon

Around the time when The Quiet American was scheduled for release in 2001, the attacks on the World Trade Centre occurred. The release was delayed until 2002. The film’s themes of US meddling in foreign lands, and complicity in terrorism, were deemed too controversial at such a delicate time.

I've included a few shots of the Caravelle Hotel minus Hollywood additions, in the seletion above. One I shot in 1993 - when the Caravelle still looked as it did when it opened back in 1959. Another is of the modern day version, with a new wing that was added in the late 1990s.

Hotel developers haven't been kind to Saigon's heritage. In recent weeks, another little colonial heritage gem, and more recently the ANZ Bank in Saigon, was destroyed to make way for a new Hilton Hotel.

Many expected The Quiet American to start a rush of Hollywood film production in Vietnam. It never happened. Fifteen years later though, things may be changing. Early in 2016, Vietnam was a major location for a new King Kong movie, set for release in 2017.