Pressburger: the Hungarian heart of British film

The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are among the jewels in the crown of British cinema. The duo, known as the Archers, have seen their reputation revived in recent years thanks to restorations of classics like A Matter of Life and Death and The Red Shoes. Powell and Pressburger brought a unique brand of imagination and fantasy to British screens in the forties and fifties. One half of this British institution, Emeric Pressburger, was a Hungarian Jewish refugee – a background rarely commented on in discussions of the Archers’ achievements. Pressburger’s life took in the glory years of the German studio system, anti-Nazi wartime propaganda films, and ultimately some of the most spectacular Technicolor fantasies ever put on screen. He brought Central European sensibilities to the British public. But how do we locate the Hungarian element in the Archers?

To figure out the Pressburger puzzle, host Sam Goff welcomes back film historian and curator Ian Christie to the pod. Ian knew Pressburger at the end of his life and, along with the likes of Martin Scorsese, helped to kickstart the Powell and Pressburger revival in the late 1970s – so he was perfectly placed to discuss the life and times of this fascinating figure.

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Intro music by Juliet Merchant.