The Quiet American

In 1955, journalist and author Graham Greene published a novel about a British journalist in Saigon who witnesses the breakdown of French colonialism and the early involvement of the United States in Vietnam, while also being caught in a love triangle between himself, his Vietnamese lover, and a young CIA agent.

The book, entitled The Quiet American would be adapted for the screen in 1958 by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and again in 2002 by Philip Noyce, starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.

Critiquing new and old forms of colonialism, war crimes and the impossibility of remaining neutral, The Quiet American is arguably the first nostalgic espionage film of the 21st century, and maintains its relevance today.

Hello, and welcome to The Spy with the Blood-Tinted Glasses.

My name is Vincent M.

And there is reflective nostalgia, looking back on the past with an awareness that there were problems to be acknowledged along with the fondness.

Restorative and reflective nostalgia run throughout this sub-genre, and therefore inform our discussions.

This episode was part of the first recording, but my guest and I spent so much time talking about the wider issues of nostalgic espionage that that became an introductory episode, and this is our discussion of The Quiet American, chosen by Sergio Angelini.

In this first episode, I chat with Sergio Angelini, host of the podcast Tipping My Fedora.

A word on this, this chat was originally meant to be solely about one of our discussion films, The Quiet American.

However, Sergio and I spent a lot of time discussing the subjects of the podcast more broadly, so this first episode is more of an introduction to the sub-genre, with the subsequent episode focused on The Quiet American.

Welcome to our little clubhouse.

It is my great pleasure to welcome to the podcast Sergio Angelini.

with Sergio Angelini.

Thank you so much, Sergio, for coming on and sharing your thoughts.

And we will hear more from him when we discuss The Quiet American in the next episode.

But yeah, he had a really good...

There was a really good year where he did both Quiet American and Rabbit Proof Fence.

And Then Salt, you know, was a huge action hit after that.

And since then, it's been a little quiet.