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A magnet for brilliance: Margaret Fink Margaret Fink, 73, holds a photograph of herself taken by her ex-husband, Leon, in 1963, when she had just turned 30.

Next time Margaret Fink makes a film, HER she might like to think about basing it on her own life. Feminist, atheist, one-time anarchist, artist, stylist, pianist, writer, hostess par excellence and, of course, film producer, there’s surely enough raw material to work with. The film could start, perhaps, in the pubs of post-war – places long- WILD, demolished now, such as the Tudor, the Newcastle and the Assembly – where a group of intellectuals, musicians, artists, journalists, students and general larrikins, known loosely as the , used to gather to discuss politics, philosophy and the sexual mores of the day. Among these free-thinking minds and unchained hearts was a precocious, wild- WILD eyed beauty named Margaret Elliott who’d just broken free from her own family to enter Sydney bohemian society. The film could begin with her in one of these pubs, a stylish slip of a thing, smoking Camels, occasionally high on dexedrene (an over- the-counter amphetamine of choice in those days!) and disarming all and sundry WAYBohemian wild child and friend of Sthe famous and – particularly the men – with her sharp wit, athletic mind and come-hither looks. infamous, film producer Margaret Fink talks to David The film would then go on to trace the Leser about the highs and lows of her amazing life. life of post-war Sydney and some of its more memorable characters, with Margaret a fixture in nearly every scene. There she “COME IN, COME IN … The house is in “Patrick loved her,” his biographer, would be at 18, a budding art teacher, having mayhem,” shrills the voice from the kitchen David Marr, tells The Weekly. “She gave just lost her virginity to a 31-year-old and that’s the first thing you notice about him lip, but she was sexy with it. He loved returned serviceman (He knew what he was Margaret Fink. The voice. At full throttle, her because she was a serious film-maker doing!), or at 19, falling in love with the poet/ it can slice the air like a sharp instrument, a trying to make good films based on philosopher Harry Hooton, a man 25 years weapon both of attack and defence. Sitting good Australian writing. She was sassy, her senior and a central figure in the Push. somewhere between an exclamation mark independent and sharp.” (Margaret’s straightlaced parents, and an officer’s indignant command, it’s also Margaret Fink has produced some Dixie and Jack Elliott, would be appalled the voice, as one friend notes, of a “five memorable films in her life – namely when their daughter moved into a Kings star swearer”. “Can you f*** it up a bit, My Brilliant Career, which set Judy Cross bed-sitter with Harry, but Dixie – love,” she said to Luke Davies, the author Davis and Sam Neill on their international good-natured soul that she was – would of Candy, when he was trying to fine-tune trajectories nearly 30 years ago, and now eventually buy the couple a double bed!) the film script. “It’s not dark enough.” Candy, the acclaimed heroin-fuelled love Then the film might fast forward five The second characteristic you notice story which reaffirmed the soaring talents years and Margaret, still with Harry Hooton, about Margaret Fink is the eyes, a pair of of two more Australasians, Heath Ledger would be conducting a wild, clandestine almonds which once described and Abbie Cornish. affair with young Barry Humphries, just as “mosaics of experience”. That was In between these two shining cinematic as Barry’s monstrously satirical creation, before he wrote them into his novel, moments, there have been a number of other Edna Everage, was beginning to storm- The Twyborn Affair. “Margaret, I’ve put credible efforts, all of them adaptations troop her way out of Moonee Ponds. your eyes into my next novel,” the great from Australian literary works, namely For some early black humour – and author told her one day. “Oh, that’s nice,” David Williamson’s The Removalists, there would need to be plenty of it in this Margaret replied. “Yes,” White replied. Christina Stead’s For Love Alone and film, to capture the central character –  “They’re the eyes of a transvestite!” Sumner Locke Elliott’s . Margaret would reveal herself as one TIM BAUER. BY PHOTOGRAPHY

64 | WW JANUARY 2007 WW JANUARY 2007 | 65 of Barry’s minders while he did battle towards Frankie’s dying wish – a farewell conservatorium. Afternoons were free for with the demon drink, particularly one trip to . play – in the backyard, but not the front. riotous day in 1971 when he went on a These were parties often held in the Sunday mornings were for church, then bender at Sydney’s Gazebo Hotel. grandest of styles – Cole Porter music wafting the long walk home for the family baked Margaret and Barry would no longer be in off a candle-lit driveway, butlers and lunch, then church again in the evening. lovers, but the loving concern would still French champagne in art-filled rooms, and, “No wonder I broke out,” Margaret exclaims be there as she walked into his hotel room of course, an endless hum of conversation, now, referring to her rejection of God and to find Barry missing, but with all his clothes often riotous, but always memorable. her embracing of all that the Push stood left behind. “Oh God, no,” she’d mutter to Max Lambert, the Australian composer for – anti-authoritarianism, sexual liberation herself. “He’s at the bottom of the pool.” and musical director, says that most of and a Socratic search for the truth. Well, not quite. Barry would be sitting at the stories he could tell about Margaret Yet something rubbed off, too, from the front bar, completely naked, having a Fink remain “unsuitable for the Women’s her artistic parents. Margaret became a double whisky with the hotel manager. Weekly readership”. Suffice to say, he fine pianist and art teacher. She learnt to And then, after Harry and Barry had has had some of the “best nights” of his cook and sew and decorate. She developed departed the scene, there would be marriage life in her home. And mornings, too. an eye for beauty that was to then find its to, children with and divorce from Leon “Once, between houses, I lived with her,” fullest expression in the men she loved, Fink, the turquoise sports car-driving he says. “For several mornings in a row, the spaces she occupied and the films she property developer, who at one time, I sleepily came downstairs and there was would eventually produce. according to , was the Barry Humphries, the next day, Clive Today, for example, her Keith Cottier- “She is a pollinator. Through Margaret, you’ll meet actors, artists, authors, journalists, judges, the occasional ratbag … ” “most upsettingly beautiful man” at James, and the third day, Germaine Greer. designed home – although turned upside University. The film might “I felt like I hadn’t woken up and was still down by the house painters – is still a look at this modern marriage, but also at dreaming. Of course, this was about 8am delightful testament to her interests and the great sisterly bond forged between and Margaret was fully dressed, had made eclectic style: shelves filled with Baroque these two formidable women – Germaine breakfast and had done 18 other things before CDs and books on film and classical and Margaret – in young Mr Fink’s bed. that. She was in her 60s then and she used literature; walls covered in oil paintings, “I’ve just fallen in love with this gorgeous to bound up the stairs two at a time … ” wood blocks and her own originals; a man,” Margaret would tell Germaine at their kitchen with hanging breadbaskets and favourite Repin’s Café one day in 1961. AS IT TURNS OUT, Margaret Fink is various bric-a-brac from around the world; “His name is Leon Fink.” Germaine would still full of restless energy and more. During a bathroom of Italian limestone with a bath literally drop her coffee cup and exclaim, our three-and-a-half hours together recently, in the middle and a juliet balcony, all “But he’s the guy who deflowered me”. the 73-year-old producer of Candy was at converging on a courtyard with a cumquat So any film – or story for that matter – once warm, funny, profane, smart, curious, and a mandarin tree in the middle, and about Margaret Fink would have to capture cultured, impatient, generous, aggressively wisteria climbing into a summer green room. this unfailing talent for spotting brilliance opinionated, modest, egotistical, cheerful And all this found inside two converted – brilliant lovers, brilliant friends, brilliant and, perhaps most surprising of all, regretful 19th-century workers’ cottages, which actors – and the ability to then bring them to the point of self-laceration. Margaret shamelessly wants to expand on. into her radiant circle. Her regrets are noteworthy given that it “I’m afraid I covet the third one [next “She runs one of the few remaining salons is a not a word she likes using. “I use it as door] because I should have the third one, left in the country,” says Nicholas Pounder, a pun sometimes,” she says. “Mar-regret, obviously,” she says with the mirth catching the former second-hand book dealer and instead of Margaret. But I suppose in in her throat. “You’re not meant to covet friend to both Barry Humphries and honesty I do have some regrets. I’m sorry your neighbour’s anything, but I covet my Margaret Fink. “She is a pollinator. Through I didn’t get more out of my parents.” neighbour’s house. Shocking isn’t it?” Margaret, you’ll meet actors, artists, authors, Both of them, Dixie and Jack Elliot, were And with that she lets out a deep, raucous, journalists, judges, the Aoccasional ratbag fine singers who had met at Sydney’s self-mocking laugh. … Somehow, she brings about the best Conservatorium of Music just prior to the It is this brutal honesty which Jacki informal brainstorming I’ve ever seen … the Great Depression. Dixie, in particular, could Weaver remembers first put her off first rule, of course, being never to be dull.” have gone on to become one of ’s Margaret Fink when they met more So you could also make your starting finest sopranos had she not chosen family than 30 years ago. Jacki was in David point any one of the celebrated parties life instead. “She decided to have four Williamson’s play, The Removalists, soon for which Margaret Fink has become children from the word go,” her daughter to be cast in the movie of the same name. renowned. The so-called last lunch for says now. “Two to replace yourself and two “She was a force to be reckoned with,” Patrick White (where she cooked her more – that was my mother’s philosophy.” Jacki says now. “She took no prisoners … signature salmon dish in a fish kettle The marriage, according to Margaret, but all the things that made me a bit and did the potato salad not once but was “an unpleasant, bickering affair”, with guarded about her then are the things twice, just to make sure it was right). Dixie running the show. No alcohol was I love about her now. There is nothing The birthday party for Germaine Greer. allowed in the house and movies were simpering or mealy-mouthed about The dinner for the late journalist, author banned because they were considered Margaret. She is totally honest … and she and rock music writer Lillian Roxon. The too vulgar, dangerous or both. (Margaret has been like that all her life. In fact, her 70th birthday party for Sydney couturier was 19 when she first saw Jean Renoir’s whole life is a beautiful design. There is Margaret at her Sydney home, a “Gothic pile” Frankie Mitchell, when 120 people gathered masterpiece, The River, the film that changed nothing false or pretentious about it.” renowned for parties, often at the Finks’ Gothic pile in the Sydney her life forever.) Saturday mornings were Part of this beautiful design, of course, held in the grandest  suburb of Woollahra to donate money set aside for the study of music at the is to be found in her blazing eye for TIM BAUER. BY PHOTOGRAPHY of styles, and attracting world-famous identities.

66 | WW JANUARY 2007 WW JANUARY 2007 | 67 the television mini-series Edens Lost) or Leon, Margaret seven years, as with Candy, to see the and their daughter, project realised. Hannah, who acted as On the plus side, this also means that, her nanny’s fl owergirl at her wedding in 1971. in her personal life, she is blessed with innumerable friends, constantly collecting new ones, rarely letting go of old ones, generous to a fault with all. Her friend from Push days, Judy Smith, recalls Margaret learning to become a Double Bay dress-maker back in the 1950s and not just sewing fabulous clothes for herself, but for all her friends as well. “She made everything she wore,” Judy says, “and she looked a million dollars. But she did it for the rest of us, too. Her generosity was astounding. Each of us, when we left Australia, would leave with suitcases full of clothes Margaret had made for us.” And half a century later, one hears the same refrain. Flowers for a friend when he is sick. A warm bed when she’s got nowhere to stay. A place at the table when talent. With The Removalists, the actors Australian one morning in bed and we’d one is hungry – for food, conversation were cast by mutual agreement with director been looking for [the] Harry Beecham or both. “She understands the perfect Tom Jeffrey, although Margaret recognised [character] for years and I saw this photo pleasure that great hospitality gives,” says straight away the creative powers of the of this guy [Sam Neill] and I thought, ‘That’s journalist David Marr. “She’s a friend young playwright, David Williamson. Harry Beecham’. So I got him to come through thick and thin, fame and infamy,” With Tirra Lirra By The River, a film around to [my house] just to make sure – face echoes Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet. based on Jessica Anderson’s novel, which to face – that I was right. And I opened the “She’s an unusual, fantastic woman and Margaret spent 10 fruitless years trying to door and there was Harry Beecham, at last.” she has an ambience around her,” agrees breathe cinematic life into, she picked an Based on the story of a poor farmer girl’s writer Richard Neville. “That’s why we’re unknown Cate Blanchett for the main role. struggle against society’s conventions, lifelong friends. You can say anything With For Love Alone, which Margaret My Brilliant Career was to pick up a at Margaret Fink’s table.” spent seven years bringing to fruition, she swag of national and international awards, Richard remembers the funeral two years cast a young Hugo Weaving straight out including six AFIs, two BAFTAs (the ago of a mutual friend, Steve Vadim, a of NIDA for his first feature role. British equivalent of the Oscars) and an White Russian cafe proprietor who used And, of course, with My Brilliant Career, Oscar nomination. According to Margaret, to serve home-made beef stroganoff and it was Margaret’s baby from day one. After it was her cinematic equivalent of The white wine to his bohemian clientele back being sent a copy of ’s famous Female Eunuch, the feminist international in the 1950s. “When he died,” Richard turn-of-the-century novel in 1965, she best-seller which launched her friend, tells The Weekly, “nobody remembered immediately bought the film rights – 14 Germaine Greer’s, writing career in 1970. him, except Margaret. She was there. years before the film would be completed. And yet Margaret remains clearly She’s able to keep the flame burning.” She then used her own fabric and distressed by what she believes is the lack Which brings us to the downside of linen for the set, selected the music of recognition for her pivotal role in the film. being unable to let go. Not getting enough (Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood) “My Brilliant Career is so much my film kudos for a film such as My Brilliant Career and, of course, chose the scriptwriter and I feel really aggravated that Gillian’s is one thing to stick in your craw nearly “She’s an unusual, fantastic woman and she has an ambience around her ... You can say anything at Margaret Fink’s table.”

(Eleanor Whitcombe), director (Gillian career went like that [pointing skywards] 30 years after the event. Still harbouring deep Armstrong) and actors. “I went straight to and her bank balance after it … and I got regrets about relationships which ended the Paris Theatre [in Sydney],” she says nowhere. I didn’t work again for seven years. nearly 50 years ago is quite another. Yet now as excitedly as if it were yesterday, And that’s because they pick the director that’s what Margaret Fink feels with respect “walked into a rehearsal [where Judy Davis … which is not to denigrate Gillian’s to some of the key relationships of her life. was playing the maid in Louis Nowra’s contribution. It was vast … but in Cannes, Falling for Barry Humphries while she Visions] and I saw this girl, and I thought, someone said, ‘They’ve got the wrong was still with Harry Hooton still plays ‘I don’t believe it’. Picked her up and took girl’. Because they were all after Gillian havoc with her conscience. Yes, it was a her to Clays Bookshop in Macleay Street, and I was pushed aside and left out in the wild attraction to Barry, she admits, but went in and got a copy of My Brilliant cold. And I am a creative film-maker.” ill-fated from the start. Career, opened it up, crossed out My and “The first morning [I was with him put Your, signed it and gave it to Judy … MARGARET FINK finds it hard to in Melbourne], he gave me an order for Who knows where the copy is? She bags let go. On the plus side, this means she breakfast. ‘I’ll have … ’ I said, ‘Are you the film whenever she gets a chance. rarely gives up on a project she believes kidding?’ You see, I was a born feminist.  COURTESY OF MARGARET FINK. COURTESY “Now with Sam, I was reading The in, even if it takes her a decade (as with Miles Franklin was a born feminist. 68 | WW JANUARY 2007 M WW JANUARY 2007 | 69 Abbie Cornish and Heath Ledger in Candy. Left: Margaret (centre, back row) on the set of 1979 fi lm My Brilliant Career, with director Gillian Armstrong (left), Sam Neill and Judy Davis (right).

“And that’s why Barry [Humphries] and I were doomed from the word go – because of my independence and feminism ...”

Mary Wollstonecraft was a born feminist. candour. “I love her outspokenness,” he herself look 15 years younger, Margaret I didn’t need The Female Eunuch to tell says, “her hilarious biting wit and, dare Fink is still “hunting for treasure”, as me. In fact, you know, the Push and a lot I say it, when she chooses to get into the her friend Richard Neville likes to put of things Germaine might have picked realms of character assassination, she’s a it. Not so much in the area of romance up from me could have helped inform lot of fun. She’s incredibly opinionated.” as in the area of work and people. Her The Female Eunuch. Margaret also carries sorrow about peerless eye for talent found its target “And that’s why Barry and I were her 17-year marriage to Leon Fink, a man with Candy, first with the initial reading doomed from the word go – because of she still adores. Together, they share three of Luke Davies’ book and then with her my independence and feminism, because children – Hannah, a writer, John, a choice of actors (Heath Ledger and Abbie of my atheism and eccentricity … and documentary maker, and Ben, a guitarist Cornish), director (Neil Armfield) and because of his right-wing views, set in formerly with The Whitlams. “Leon’s a editor (John Collier). cement. At 23!” fantastic man,” she says. “He’s original … Then, more recently, she was able to Nonetheless, she continued to see Barry I think he’s a prince. He’s a very, very zero in on the considerable skills of new in secret while living with Harry – until good man. Funny and wayward, but he playwright Tommy Murphy when she Harry found out and “kidnapped” Margaret. gets what he wants.” How do you look visited Sydney’s Stables Theatre to see “Look the Harry, Barry, me thing goes on back on the marriage? I ask her. “With his latest work, Strangers in Between. and on and on and on and on and on,” she regret,” she replies, without hesitation. “I went to this theatre and I thought, ‘Oh continues, letting out a howl of anguish in “It was the 1970s and I think it’s fair to Christ, this is the best theatre I’d heard the process. “Arghhhhhhh … You know … say we were both experimenting.” since early Williamson. Who wrote it?’ I’ll never know anyone like Harry. Never After Leon “pissed off” – to use ‘Tommy Murphy.’ ‘Never heard of him. … Oh, dear,” she says, those astonishing Margaret’s parlance – she then fell for the Who is he?’ Found out, met him … he’s eyes of hers now moist with tears. “And I hell-raising criminal-turned-playwright, recently won the [NSW] Premier’s Award just loathe the idea of causing him [Harry] Jim McNeill. “He really was a handful,” for best playwright.” heartache. Really loathe it.” Margaret offers. “Like a lot of criminals, And now the two have teamed up to Harry Hooton died in 1961 and Barry very right-wing … and once again a work on a new project tentatively called Humphries and Margaret Fink’s friendship clinical genius [like Harry Hooton and Eugenia, about a woman who lived as a foundered recently when Margaret was Barry Humphries].” Yet he was also a man in the first third of the 20th century. quoted describing Barry and his politics in violent drunkard who laid into Margaret “Oh it’s a fabulous project,” Margaret most unflattering terms. “He’s just wiped one day after she refused to continue their cries with undimmed enthusiasm. “Just me,” Margaret says. “That’s the finish of relationship. She managed to escape the fabulous. I’m so excited about it.” our friendship and I’m sorry about that.” apartment bloodied and bruised. And let’s hope it gets up for Margaret’s Although, perhaps, not surprising, given And then, in the ensuing years, there sake. Yet if, for some reason, it doesn’t, that Margaret also denounced his politics were many other lovers, even during there’s always the one about the feminist to me during our interview, not to mention menopause when Mother Nature might film producer who lived the life of an artist the politics of painter Margaret Olle and have been urging her to take a well-earned in post-war Australia, forever thumbing those of her brother-in-law, controversial rest. “I was having a wonderful love affair her nose at convention, turning a gleaming historian Keith Windschuttle. [during menopause] and my theory there eye towards beauty and truth, and speaking All of which confirms writer Luke is that it probably assists your hormones out with that boisterous, singular voice Davies’ view of Margaret as a woman and gets them working away.” of hers, “Can you f*** it up a bit, love … ■ with a rather startling – and refreshing – At 73 and with “half a facelift” to help it’s not dark enough”. KEN MATTS/NEWSPIX.

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