Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of a Screenwriter

503 Pages·1994·10.841 MB·English

by  Kevin Macdonald

EMERIC
PRESSBURGER
The Life and Death
of a Screenwriter
Kevin Macdonald
Foreword by
Billy Wilder
ew major figures in cinema history have
remained as personally and professionally
enigmatic as Emeric Pressburger.
A Hungarian Jew who lived and worked in
half a dozen European countries before
arriving in Britain in 1935, Pressburger's
reputation rests on the series of strikingly
original films he made in collaboration with
Michael Powell under the banner of The
Archers.
The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life find Death,
Black Narcissus and The Life and Death of
Colonel Blimp all bear the unique credit
'Written, Produced and Directed by Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger'.
Frequently controversial, always
experimental, The Archers suffered a long
period of neglect before being rediscovered
by such prominent admirers as Martin
Scorsese, Derek Jarman and Francis Ford
Coppola. But even now Pressburger
remains a shadowy figure, often ignored,
or demoted to being merely 'Michael
Powell's screenwriter'.
Written by his grandson, and containing
extracts from private diaries and
correspondence, this biography defends the
notion of film as a collaborative art and
illuminates the adventurous life and work of
the film-maker who brought continental
grace, wit and style to British cinema.
Kevin Macdonald was born in Glasgow in
1967. He was educated at Glenalmond
College, Perthshire and St Anne's College,
Oxford and now works as a documentary
film-maker. He is also the writer of the
short film Dr Reitzer's Fragment. This is
his first book.
Back cover stills courtesy of
BFI Stills, Posters and Designs
UK £20.00 net
j Canada $35.00
" 1.95
EMERIC PRESSBURGER
The Life and Death of a
Screenwriter
KEVIN MACDONALD
Foreword by
BILLY WILDER
s
faberandfaber
I ONDON BOSTON
First published in Great Britain in 1994
by Faber and Faber Limited
3 Queen Square London wcin 3 au
Photoset in Sabon by Parker Typesetting Service, Leicester
Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic
© Kevin Macdonald, 1994
Foreword © Billy Wilder, 1994
A CIP record for this book is available
from the British Library
isbn 0-571-16853-1
For My Grandparents
ALTA MARGARET MACDONALD
‘D B’ MACDONALD
WENDY NEWMAN
EMERIC PRESSBURGER
Contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
FOREWORD BY BILLY WILDER xiii
INTRODUCTION XV
PART I IMRE
1 Beginnings 3
2 Travelling 17
3 Down and Out in the Tiergarten 37
PART II EMMERICH
4 Ufa and the Weimar Movie Brats ¿3
5 Friends and Mentors 83
6 La Vie Parisienne 101
7 Being Hungarian is not Enough 120
PART III EMERIC
8 The Teller of the Tale 143
9 The War 159
10 Artists United 183
11 Blimp’s Biography 204
12 Knowing Where To Go 229
13 Other Archers 250
14 The Red Shoes 273
15 Production Values 298
16 Divorce 332
PART IV RICHARD IMRIE
17 Second Childhood 365
18 Ending's 392
FILMOGRAPHY 414
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EMERIC PRESSBURGER 433
BIBLIOGRAPHY 434
SOURCE NOTES 436
INDEX 450
List of Illustrations
1. The Pressburger family, c. 1900, at Imre’s aunt Mariska’s wed­
ding in Baqka Topola.
2. Magda Rona in 1947. Emeric’s first love.
3. Emeric’s Ufa pass.
4. Writing Abschied, with Irma von Cube in the South of France.
5. Writing Ronrry (1931) in Bad Ischl with Emmerich Kalman,
Hans Albers and Reinhold Schunzel.
6. Front and back of the programme for Ronny (1931).
7. Exile in Paris. With Pierre Brasseur on the Champs Elysees,
1933­
8. Emeric outside an English football ground during the season of
1935-6­
9. Emeric’s first marriage, with Stapi, Magda Kun, Agi and Eliza­
beth Ramon.
10. Emeric with Michael Powell and red setter outside Denham
studios shortly after completing The Spy in Black (1939).
11. Emeric with Laurence Olivier on the set of 49th Parallel (1941).
12. Emeric with Wendy and Angela in the garden of the house in
Hendon, 1943.
13. Alfred Junge, Michael and Emeric on the set of A Canterbury
Tale( 1944).
14. Emeric with Wendy and Michael Powell on location for I Know
Where Vm Going (1944).
15. Emeric with Wendy, Roger Livesey and Ursula Jeans at the Royal
Command Performance of A Matter of Life and Death (1946).
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
16. Deborah Kerr, Emeric, Rumer Godden, Michael and Alfred
Junge on the set of Black Narcissus (1947).
17. Part of the set for Black Narcissus (1947).
18. Kathleen Byron on the same set in the finished film.
19. Anton Walbrook, Albert Basserman and Leonid Massine in a
scene cut from the finished film of Red Shoes (1948).
20. Michael and Emeric with costume designer Jacques Fath and
Moira Shearer and Anton Walbrook.
21. J. Arthur Rank presents Emeric and Michael with a Japanese
award for The Red Shoes.
22. Emeric admires Sir Thomas Beecham during a play-through of
The Tales of Hoffman (1950).
23. With Angela at a children’s matinee.
24. Directing debut. With the twins on the set of Twice Upon a Time
in Kitzbuhel, 1952.
25. Emeric with Hein Heckroth, Columba, Frankie and Michael
Powell on the set of The Battle of the River Plate (1956).
26. En route for Kashmir. David Lean and his purple Rolls-Royce,
1958.
27. Emeric retreats into Shoemaker’s cottage.
28. The distinguished elder statesmen of British cinema.
29. A photograph of Emeric taken by Michael during the Museum of
Modern Art retrospective.
All photographs © the author, with the exception of 14, 17, 18, 19
and 20 reproduced courtesy of The Rank Organization, 28 courtesy
of Cornel Lucas, 29 courtesy of the estate of Michael Powell and 8
with thanks to Kevin Gough-Yates.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people who took the time to be
interviewed or to write to me, sometimes on more than one occasion,
or who helped in other ways: Noreen Ackland, Agnes Anderson,
Helmut Asper, Ian Bannen, Dirk Bogarde, Kevin Brownlow, Kathleen
Byron, Rudolph Cartier, Jack Cardiff, Chris Challis, Joan Colburn
Alkinson, Betty Curtis, Cyril Cusack, Nancy Dennis, Brian Easdale,
Thomas Elsaesser, Rudi Fehr, Freddy Francis, Don Jokin Garmilla
Ebro, Sidney Gilliat, Michael Gough, Tom Greenwell, Tamara Grun-
wald, Angela Gwyn John, Guy Hamilton, Hans Holba, Bill Hopkins,
Valerie Hobson, Wendy Hiller, Erwin Hillier, Felix Jackson, Rudolph
Joseph, Michel Kelber, Vivienne Knight, Francis Lederer, Linn and
James Lee, Patrick Leigh-Fermour, Malla Macdonald, William Mac­
donald, Geoffrey McNab, Hans Marcus, Ronald Neame, the late
Harold Newman, Charles Orme, Joan Page, Bill Paton, Mr and Mrs
Gyorgy Peteri, the late Jozef Pressburger, Zsu-Zsa Roboz, Miklos
Rozsa, Julian and Kato Schoepflin, Anne-Marie Schiinzel, Martin
Scorsese, Moira Shearer, Curt Siodmak, Marga Stapenhorst, Hugh
Stewart, the remarkable survivors Fricy Szekely, Dr Adolph Aczel and
Gizaneni Pressburger from Timi§oara and Backa Topola, Mrs Tarjan,
Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.
Also: Ada Heckroth for hospitality and permission to quote from
her late husband’s revealing diaries. Caroline Ball and David Watson
at Faber. Mark and George at London Management for access to
contracts etc. David Moore for reading the manuscript with an
editor’s eye, and Chantal Joffe for the comments of a bibliophile. For
translations: the Schoepflins, David, Cathy, Zsuzsa, Ildiko and
Simon. Carmen Reid for her help both practical (translations beyond
the call of duty) and impractical. At the British Film Institute I would
like to express my gratitude to Wilf Stevenson for arranging a grant
for translations, and to Janet Moat and David Sharp at Library
Services. Help was also furnished by the staff of the Stiftung Deutsche
Kinematek in Berlin. Extracts from Crown Copyright Records (Chap­
ter n) appear by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s