EMERIC PRESSBURGER

Emeric Pressburger was born in Hungary in 1902. He first wrote movies in German and French for UFA, the giant German film studio beginning in 1930 (he wrote 30 now-forgotten films between 1930 and 1936), but he was Jewish, and Hitler's rise caused him to go to England in 1936, and he began screenwriting there. By luck he met director Michael Powell in 1940, who had directed some 30 now-forgotten films between 1930 and 1940, but who in 1940 had been one of the directors on the magnificent The Thief of Bagdad, and together they formed a partnership they called The Archers, and over the next 20 years they would make 20 movies together, ones that are now considered to be among the finest movies ever made. Some of the very best are A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), The Red Shoes (1948), Black Narcissus (1947), and my personal favorite, 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945), (a love story on a par with David Lean's classic Brief Encounter). I highly recommend any of their joint efforts (you'll see great movies, but also what is missing in movies today, namely coherent involving plots mixed with superb direction). Pressburger was born just three years before Powell, and after making one last feature together in 1966, and a short together in 1972, both men retired, yet Pressburger lived until 1988, passing away at the age of 85, and Powell lived until 1990. They did both live to see the great acclaim given to their films!