VIETNAM/FILE: PHAM XUAN AN IS FORMER VIETNAMESE REPORTER AND DOUBLE AGENT ADVISING ON FILMING OF GRAHAM GREENE'S NOVEL "THE QUIET AMERICAN"

Record ID: 899068

  • Title: VIETNAM/FILE: PHAM XUAN AN IS FORMER VIETNAMESE REPORTER AND DOUBLE AGENT ADVISING ON FILMING OF GRAHAM GREENE'S NOVEL "THE QUIET AMERICAN"
  • Date: 28th March 2001
  • Summary: HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PHAM XUAN AN (WHITE SHIRT) WITH ACTOR TZI MA ON FILM SET (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2005 20:21
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM
  • City:
  • Country: Vietnam France
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAAAO82GT5A865CNZQHLJNZAK6X
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Set against the exotic backdrop of old Saigon, intrigue and betrayal are the order of the day in a new film based on Graham Greene's prophetic novel "The Quiet American". The film makers say they will go to any lengths to recreate the spirit of French colonial Vietnam - even if it means putting a former spy under surveillance.
    Pham Xuan An is a frail, soft-spoken 73-year-old gentleman. But appearances can be deceiving.
    From colonial rule in the 1950s to the end of the Vietnam War, he reported alongside the most distinguished foreign correspondents. The truth emerged years later and had a better twist than anything Hollywood could come up with - An was a double agent.
    Now retired with the rank of general, An is lending his insight about the twilight years of French rule to a new film production of Graham Greene's novel "The Quiet American"
    starring Sir Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.
    "The movement went down in 51 and one of the leaders was captured and killed. Many others were captured and went into the jungle so I was asked to have another assignment -- to work for the secret intelligence. It started in 51 but I started early in 52, until the end of the war," said An.
    His skills as a journalist helped in espionage.
    "It is important as firstly it keeps you in touch with all kinds of people because you have to find stories about social activities those who smoke opium and the dancing girls and the military during the war particularly," he added.
    An was warmly welcomed on set in Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. The timing was impeccable, with him arriving to see the cinematic aftermath of the 1952 explosion near the elegant Continental Hotel. It was a familiar scene to An -- and to Greene, who was also a reporter in Vietnam.
    "That day was like today but a little bit more sun. I was coming from the customs house office riding a bicycle about four blocks from here. I missed the explosion so I continued pedaling. I saw the smoke and some bodies lying down so some civilians like me, bystanders, gathered and had a look. The French police and Vietnamese police pushed them out," An said.
    In Greene's 1955 book, Dominguez the news assistant supplies the jaded reporter Fowler with contacts -- including Mr. Heng a Vietminh sympathizer.
    Heng slowly exposes the role of Fowler's American friend Pyle as a CIA agent and his complicity in the killing of innocent civilians.
    Australian director Philip Noyce says his adaptation of Greene's book is faithful -- except for one character.
    "When I found out there had been a Vietnamese who had worked for Reuters and Time for many years as a double agent working in the south for Europeans while spying for the north, I thought why don't we change the Indian character to a key Vietnamese character to reproduce something that is true but Greene wouldn't have known it at the time. The character of Hinh is based on the real character of Mr. An . At the time he was a censor assigned by the French to keep a particular eye on one particular journalist trouble maker Graham Greene.
    An would receive one of Greene's stories and censor them but Greene would pigeon his reports to Hong Kong as we see in the film and cable them back to London free of censorship," Noyce said.
    An said: "I was also warned in advance that I had to watch very closely the stories written by Mr. Graham Greene.
    Because the French knew that he had been working for the British Secret Service so all the military stopped his stories they would not let them go. So I saw him only twice, we didn't talk much."
    Times have changed since An's days as a reporter and spy during the long conflict in Vietnam. Now his debriefings are more like social occasions -- and he is the one under observation. Hollywood actor Tzi Ma says he has plenty to learn from An and is watching the master's every move.
    ---ENDS---
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