Happy Birthday, Emeric Pressburger! Born today in 1902 as Imre József Pressburger, this Hungarian British film screenwriter, producer and director is best known for his series of film collaborations with English filmmaker Michael Powell, in a collaboration partnership known as The Archers.
Born in Miskolc, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Pressburger was a son of Jewish heritage. He was the only son from his father's previous marriage (he had one elder half-sister).
Years later, Pressburger attended a boarding-school in Temesvár, Romania where he was a good pupil, excelling at mathematics, literature and music.
He afterwards studied mathematics and engineering at the Universities of Prague in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) and Stuttgart in Germany before his father's death forced him to abandon his studies.
Afterwards, he worked as a journalist in Hungary and Germany and later as an author and scriptwriter in Berlin, Germany and Paris, France.
After working in Hungary and Germany, Pressburger turned to screenwriting in the late 1920s, working for the German film and television production company UFA GmbH in Berlin (having moved there in 1926).
However, the rise of the Nazis forced Pressburger to flee to Paris, where he again worked as screenwriter, and then to London.
He later said, "[the] worst things that happened to me were the political consequences of events beyond my control ... the best things were exactly the same."
Since Pressburger was a Hungarian Jew, he was chased around Europe before World War II. He finally found sanctuary in London--but as a scriptwriter who didn't speak English.
Over time, he taught himself to understand not only the finer nuances of the language but also of the British people.
Pressburger's early films were mainly made in Germany and France where he worked at the UFA Studios in the Dramaturgie department (script selection, approval and editing) and as a scriptwriter in his own right.
In the 1930s, many European films were produced in multiple-language versions. Some of the films made in Germany survive today with French intertitles and vice versa.
In 1933, after the Nazis came to power, UFA's head sacked the company's remaining Jewish employees. This was along with Pressburger, of whom was told that his contract would not be renewed.
Pressburger had left his Berlin apartment, "leaving the key in the door so that the stormtroopers wouldn't have to break the door down" and left for Paris. It was late in 1935 Pressburger decided that he would do better in England.
Pressburger entered Great Britain in 1935 on a stateless passport; once he decided to settle, he changed his name to Emeric in 1938. However, Pressburger would not become a British citizen until 1946.
While in England, he later found a small community of Hungarian filmmakers who had fled the Nazi.
This included British film director, producer and screenwriter Alexander Korda, the then-owner of London Films. He was the one of whom employed Pressburger as a screenwriter.
Asked by Korda to improve the script for the 1939 British black and white war/action film 'The Spy in Black' (known in the United States as 'U-Boat 29'), he met the film's director, Powell.
In doing so, their partnership would produce some of the finest British films of the next decade. However, Pressburger still did some projects on his own.
A few lucky breaks and introductions via old friends led to his meeting with "renegade" Powell.
They then went on to make some of the most interesting and complex films of the 1940s and 1950s. This was under the banner of "The Archers".
Pressburger was much more than simply "Michael Powell's screenwriter" as some have categorized him.
The films that they made together in this period were mainly original stories by Pressburger, of whom also did most of the work of a producer for the team.
Pressburger was more involved in the editing process than Powell. As a musician, Pressburger was also involved in the choice of music for their films.
Unfortunately, Pressburger's partnership with Powell split up after 1956, and Emeric returned to writing after one attempt at producing one film and directing another.
The perception of many of those around them was in the Powell/Pressburger partnership: Powell was the partly out-of-control genius, while Pressburger was the force that focused the team onto their most viable projects.
After the mid-1950s, Powell and Pressburger began to go their separate ways.
However, they remained close friends but wanted to explore different things, having done about as much as they could together. Two of Pressburger's later films were made under the pseudonym "Richard Imrie".
Of Pressburger's two marriages, the most notable was to his second wife. This was the British screenwriter Wendy Orme. They had one daughter together named Angela, of whom later kept her father's last name.
Years later, Angela became a television producer. She had two sons, who both later became successful filmmakers.
Almost four decades after Pressburger became a British citizen, he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in 1981. Two years later, he was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute (BFI) in 1983.
The first included Scottish film producer Andrew Macdonald. He later served as a producer, most notably for Danny Boyle's ('Slumdog Millionaire') 1996 British black comedy-drama crime film 'Trainspotting'.
The other son is Scottish film director Kevin Macdonald ('The Last King of Scotland'). Kevin has written a biography of his grandfather.
He also wrote and directed a short about his grandfather's life. This was The Life and Death of a Screenwriter (1994).
The following year, Macdonald turned the biography into the fifty-minute 1995 British made-for-television documentary film The Making of an Englishman.
Today, Pressburger is best known for co-directing 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' (1943), 'I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)', 'A Matter of Life and Death' (also called 'Stairway to Heaven') (1946), 'Black Narcissus' (1947) and 'The Red Shoes' (1948).
Martin Scorsese's invisible force, the Academy Award-winning American film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, and former spouse to Michael Powell, said of Pressburger: “Emeric [Pressburger] was completely cosmopolitan. That’s what makes their [with Micahel Powell] films so special.
Neither of them thought twice about making a film about a friendship between an Englishman and a German during the Blitz. They were genius.”
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".
Pressburger was a diffident and private person who, at times, particularly later on in his life, could be hypersensitive and prone to bouts of melancholia.
He loved French cuisine, enjoyed music, and possessed a great sense of humour. In appearance he was short, wore glasses, and had a sagacious, bird-like facial expression.
The screenwriter half of the Powell/Pressburger team in association with Powell, the perception of many of those around the filmmaking duo was in their partnership.
It was Powell of whom was the partly out-of-control genius, while Pressburger was the force that focused the team onto their most viable projects.
Pressburger had been active from 1930–1972.
#borntodirect
@BFI
@bafta
@Criterion
@tcm
@RogerEbert
@parisreview
@Britannica
@Amazon
No comments:
Post a Comment