Pressburger Emeric

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Emeric (Imre József) Pressburger became known especially through the films created in collaboration with Michael Powell, within their joint company, The Archers, as well as through the films 49th Parallel - Paralela 49 (1941), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Colonelul Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death (în S.U.A - Stairway to Heaven - Drumul spre stele, 1946), Black Narcissus - Narcis negru (1947) , The Red Shoes - Pantofiorii roșii (1948) and The Tales of Hoffmann – Povestirile lui Hoffmann (1951)

He was born in 1902 in Miskolc, Hungary, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as the only son of Kálmán Pressburger, a real estate administrator, and Katherina, born Wichs. After graduating from the Israelite High School in Timișoara in 1920, in the first class of the high school founded in 1919, he studied mathematics and engineering at the University of Prague and from 1923 at the Stuttgart Polytechnic, until his father's death in 1926 forced him to interrupt his studies.

Berlin și Paris

Returning to Timișoara, due to his poor knowledge of the Romanian language, he obtained the postponement of military service and went to Berlin, where he began his career as a journalist. In 1929, with the support of screenwriter and producer Fritz Podehl of UFA Studios, Pressburger was hired there as a screenwriter. He participated in the making of several German and Austrian films. In 1930 he wrote screenplays, among others, for the film Emil and the Detectives (1931), which was very successful.

After Hitler came to power in Germany, he was fired as a Jew from film studios. In 1935 he settled in London. He later remarked, "The greatest evil that has befallen me has been the political consequence of events beyond my control, and the greatest good has been exactly the same."

Marea Britanie

In 1935 Pressburger was admitted to Britain on the basis of a Nansen (stateless) passport. As a new immigrant, the Pressburger managed to master the English language to the level of subtleties. In London, he met the small community of emigrant filmmakers from Hungary, most of whom were Jewish refugees from the Nazi threat. Among them was Alexander Korda, owner of London Films studios, who hired him as a screenwriter. While working on the screenplay for Korda's film, The Spy in Black (1939) met screenwriter and director Michael Powell. Pressburger's collaboration since 1943 for 15 years with Powell in their joint venture, The Archers Films, will produce some of the best British films of the next decade. The two filmmakers signed together: Story, screenplay, produced and directed by M.Powell and E.Pressburger. Pressburger wrote the screenplay, was responsible for much of the producer's work, much of the editing, and was heavily involved in composing the soundtrack. According to American critic Drew Hunt (Chicago Reader), "Pressburger and Powell's films are situated in the middle ground between realism and expressionist fantasy, usually taking the form of melodrama, but adapting a wide variety of genres, such as the epic historical and musical”. The productions of Powell and Pressburger were an "event in the tradition of cinema-show that maximized the possibilities of casting in studios."

Anii 1950

In the mid-1950s, the paths of Pressburger and Powell parted ways, but they remained friends.

Pressburger also published two novels. The first, Killing a Mouse on a Sunday, whose action takes place during the Spanish Civil War, has received favorable reviews and has been translated into a dozen languages. The other novel, The Glass Pearls (1966), republished in 2015 by Faber and Faber, had negative reviews in The Times Literary Supplement, but in 2019, Lucy Scholes wrote in "The Paris Review" that it is "a truly remarkable work; it deserves recognition both for its virtuosity and for the additional value it brings in the genre of Holocaust literature”.

Viața particulară

On June 24, 1938, Pressburger married actress Ági Donáth, the daughter of Jewish merchant Ándor Donáth, but the couple divorced in 1941, without children. He remarried on March 29, 1947, to screenwriter Wendy Orme, with whom he had two children: a daughter, Angela (born in 1942), and a child who died in infancy in 1948. And this marriage ended in divorce. Pressburger was hard hit by this divorce. Angela had two grandchildren who both became filmmakers: Andrew Macdonald, a producer of films such as Trainspotting (1996), and Kevin Macdonald, an Oscar winner. Kevin Mcdonald also wrote a biography of his grandfather and a documentary about his life - The Making of an Englishman (1995)

Pressburger received British citizenship in 1946. Pressburger was short and wore glasses, and as a character he was described as a modest and discreet person, and later in life, prone to hypersensitivity and depressive crises. He had a sense of humor, he liked music and French cuisine, in addition, he was a supporter of the Arsenal F.C. team. Since 1970 he has lived in Aspall, Suffolk. Pressburger died in 1988, in Saxtead, in a nursing home, due to bronchopneumonia. He was buried in the cemetery next to Our Lady of Grace Church in Aspall. His tomb is said to have been the only tomb in an Anglican cemetery on which the Star of David was engraved.

Awards and honors

• 1943 - Oscar for screenplay - for the film "49th Parallel" (with Rodney Ackland)
• 1946 - The first Royal Command Film Performance - the film of Pressburger and Powell „A Matter of Life and Death” in *1948 - Bodil Award (Denmark) for the best European film - for „A Matter of Life and Death”
• 1949 - nomination for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Oscar for Best Picture, Screenplay and Editing - „The Red Shoes” (with M. Powell)
• 1950 - nomination for BAFTA - „The Small Back Room” (with M. Powell)
• 1951 - nomination for the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival - for „The Tales of Hoffmann” (with M. Powell)
• 1951 - The Silver Bear for Best Musical at the Berlin Film Festival - for „The Tales of Hoffmann” (with M. Powell)
• 1956 - nomination for the Royal Command Film Performance, for the BAFTA award for best British film, for best screenplay, for best film according to a specific source (with M. Powell)
• 1959 - nomination for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival - for „ Honeymoon” - (with M. Powell)
• 1981 - Member of the BAFTA Film and Television Academy (with Michael Powell)
• 1983 - Membru al Institutului Britanic de Film BFI (with cu Michael Powell)
• 1995 - Kevin Macdonald, his nephew, produces the documentary The Making of an Englishman (1995) about Pressburger's life
• September 21, 2007 - Inauguration of a memorial plaque at Pressburger's parental home in Miskolc on Szentpéteri kapu 3
• February 17, 2014 - Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker unveiled at Dorset House, Gloucester Place, London, at the former headquarters of The Archers between 1942-1947 - a blue plaque of English Heritage

For more details, see wikipedia https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emeric_Pressburger