Birthday: 5 December 1902, Miskolc, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
Birth Name: Imre József Pressburger
Height: 173 cm
Educated 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 d...
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Educated 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. Show less «
[interview in New York City, 1980] I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, and ...Show more »
[interview in New York City, 1980] I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, and it should have, if possible, something which is probably the most difficult thing - it should have a little bit of magic . . . Magic being untouchable and very difficult to cast, you can't deal with it at all. You can only try to prepare some nests, hoping that a little bit of magic will slide into them. Show less «
The worst things that happened to me were the political consequences of events beyond my control ......Show more »
The worst things that happened to me were the political consequences of events beyond my control ... the best things were exactly the same. Show less «
[interview in Film-Kurier, 11/2/29] There is an unjustified suspicion of the younger generation and ...Show more »
[interview in Film-Kurier, 11/2/29] There is an unjustified suspicion of the younger generation and that is an enormous, perhaps the worst, mistake. After all, the future lies in their hands. Pay attention to the younger generation of screenwriters. Show less «