Emeric Pressburger (5 December 1902 - 5 February 1988) was an Oscar-winning Hungarian/British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is known for his series of collaborations with Michael Powell.
Educated at the Universities of Prague and Stuttgart, he 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 & in Paris) before World War 2, who finally found sanctuary in London. The trouble was that he was 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 (I). They then went on to make some of the most interesting (IMHO) & complex films of the 1940's & 1950's under the banner of "The Archers". Pressburger often showed a deep understanding of the British that is only granted to those "outside, looking in". He always prided himself on being "more English than the English". After all, some of use 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.
