Emeric Pressburger
☼ Born on 5 December 1902, in Miskolc, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
† Died on 5 December 1988, in Saxstead, Suffolk, England, UK, cause bronchial pneumonia
BiographyEducated at the Universities of Prague and Stuttgart, Emeric Pressburger worked as a journalist in Hungary and Germany and an author and scriptwriter in Berlin and Paris. He was a Hungarian Jew, chased around Europe (he worked on films for UFA in Berlin and Paris) before World War II, finally finding sanctuary in London--but as a scriptwriter who didn't speak English. So he taught himself to understand not only the finer nuances of the language but also of the British people. A few lucky breaks and introductions via old friends led to his meeting with "renegade" director Michael Powell. They then went on to make some of the most interesting (IMHO) and complex films of the 1940s and 1950s under the banner of "The Archers". Pressburger often showed a deep understanding of the British only granted to those "outside, looking in". He always prided himself on being "more English than the English". After all, some of us were just BORN English, but he CHOSE to become English. He spent his last days at Shoemakers Cottage, Aspall, Stowmarket, Suffolk in the English countryside that he loved so well.
In the role of actor
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (05/05/2024)
Martin Scorsese hosts a look back at the partnership between British filmmaker Michael Powell and Hungarian screenwriter Emeric Pressburger in Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger. Martin Scorsese fostered his love of film by watching British productions that were aired on American TV. His favourites were from “Production of the Archers,” the […]