My Brilliant Life in Films:

In Conversation with Margaret Fink

Moderated by Bill Harding

7pm, Wednesday 12 Sept 2018

Bookworm Chengdu

On 12 September at Bookworm Chengdu, Australian film producer, Margaret Fink, will talk about her career in film including her leading role as the creative producer on My Brilliant Career, the award-winning Australian film that will screen at The One International Women’s Film Festival in Chengdu. Ms Fink will explore the continuing importance of feminist themes in My Brilliant Career, and their ongoing relevance in the Me Too era. Ms Fink will also provide an insider’s perspective on film production, as well as the necessity of international cultural exchange in film. The conversation will be moderated by Australian film, television and theatre writer and actor, Bill Harding.

Register for this event via QR code below or "Read More" at the end of this post.

Photo credit: Margaret Fink, 1975, by Lewis Morley

Margaret Fink (b. 1933), Australian film producer, was a key figure in the renaissance of Australian cinema in the 1970s. Born in Sydney, Margaret worked as a high school art teacher in the early 1950s and around this time decided that she wanted to make films. ‘That was an unusual decision for anyone in Australia, boy or girl’, she recalls. Margaret married businessman Leon Fink in 1961, placing her creative ambitions on hold while raising her three children.

Margaret Fink, 1989, by Kerrie Lester

Photo from Alchetron

In 1971, she saw a production of David Williamson’s The Removalists in Kings Cross and decided to make a film of it. With a cast including Jacki Weaver, Kate Fitzpatrick, and Chris Haywood, the film appeared in 1975. Her collaboration with director Gillian Armstrong on My Brilliant Career (1979) launched the careers of both Armstrong and its lead actress, Judy Davis. The film won Best Picture at the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards in 1979.

Actor Jack Thompson pours a glass of wine for Margaret Fink, producer of My Brilliant Career at the launch of the Australian promotional campaign for its entrants in the Cannes Film Festival, 10 April, 1979. SMH Picture by DAVID (from Gettyimages)

Fink also produced For Love Alone (1986), based on the novel by Christina Stead, and the well-received television series Edens Lost (1988) which in 1989 won an AFI Award and a Penguin Award. She also produced Candy (2006), the last Australian film to star the late Heath Ledger.

Film producer Margaret Fink at her Woollahra home, Sydney, 22 August 1979. SMH Picture by DAVID

Film producer Margaret Fink at the Garden Court Restaurant at the Wentworth hotel, Sydney, 6 March 1986. SMH Picture by JOHN O

Photo from Gettyimages

Theatrical release poster (from OZmovie)

My Brilliant Career is a 1979 Australian period drama film starring Judy Davis, Sam Neill and Wendy Hughes. The film was produced by Margaret Fink, directed by Gillian Armstrong and distributed by Analysis Film Releasing Corp. It is based on the novel of the same name by Miles Franklin.

My Brilliant Career

Photos from OZmovie

Synopsis

The heroine, Sybylla Melvyn, is an imaginative, headstrong girl growing up in rural Australia in the 1890s. Drought and a series of poor business decisions reduce her family to subsistence level, her father begins to drink excessively, and Sybylla struggles to deal with the monotony of her life. To her relief, she is sent to live on her grandmother's property, where life is more comfortable. There she meets wealthy young Harry Beecham, who loves her and proposes marriage. Convinced of her ugliness and aware of her tomboyish ways, Sybylla is unable to believe that he could really love her.

Sam Neill as Harry and Judy Davis as Sybylla by David Kynoch

By this time, her father's drinking has got the family into debt, and she is sent to work as governess/housekeeper for the family of an almost illiterate neighbour to whom her father owes money. She becomes acclimated to this life to the point where it is almost bearable, but to her relief (again) is sent home (this time) to keep her away from her crass employer's son who has apparently fallen for her (and, ironically, since she has no property, she is deemed unsuitable as the son's mate). When Harry Beecham returns to ask Sybylla to marry him, she concludes that she would only make him unhappy and sends him away, determined to pursue her career as a writer. The movie ending completes the suggestion, made at the beginning, that this entire screenplay is based on her first book, as we see her putting the manuscript in a mailbox in front of her parent's ramshackle house.

Photos from OZmovie

Production

Margaret Fink bought the rights to the novel and the Australian Film Development Corporation suggested she hire a writer to adapt it. Fink chose with Eleanor Witcombe for the job. Fink met Gillian Armstrong while the latter was working as an assistant art director on Fink’s The Removalists (1975) and was impressed with her short film A Hundred A Day. Fink subsequently hired Armstrong to direct My Brilliant Career.

Greater Union invested $200,000, the NSW Film Corporation invested $450,000 with the balance coming from private investors.

The role of Sybylla was cast in January 1978 but when the actress was tested in costume it was felt she was wrong for the role. Judy Davis was cast instead.

Sam Neill, Judy Davis and Gillian Armstrong by David Kynoch

Shooting took place over eight weeks in October and November 1978 in the Monaro region of New South Wales. Some scenes were shot at the Ryrie homestead at Michelago, New South Wales. 

Sam Neill as Harry and Judy Davis as Sybylla by David Kynoch

Reception and release

My Brilliant Career was released in Australia on 17 August 1979 and was shown at Cannes in 1979, where it received a warm reception. The film had its international debut in New York City at the New York Film Festival on 1 February 1980, followed by a release in Japan on 2 January 1982, and in Poland on 23 July 2007 at Era New Horizons Film Festival. It has an 81% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sam Neill and Judy Davis by David Kynoch

Bill began writing professionally aged 15 for ‘The Mavis Bramston Show’ (Channel 7 1965-7).

Bill has written comedy scripts/plays/material for TV, stage and radio performed by 
Abigail, Noelene Brown, Tina Bursill, Grahame Bond, Gordon Chater, Max Cullen, Delvene Delaney, Andrew Denton, Gloria Dawn, David Frost, Libbi Gorr, Jane Harders, Paul Hogan, Gillian Jones, Anne-Louise Lambert, Don Lane, Tommy Leonetti, Garry McDonald, Kris McQuade, Doug Mulray, Tara Morice, Max Phipps, Geoffrey Rush, Austen Tayshus, Mark Trevorrow, James Valentine, Kerry Walker and John Wood.

THEATRE
‘Silver Lining’ for Lighthouse Theatre Co. commissioned and directed by Jim Sharman in 1982.

‘Carols by Laserlight’ for Magpie Theatre and for Belvoir Theatre commissioned and directed by Geoffrey Rush in 1984 & 1985.

‘Rome Tremble’ for Sydney Theatre Company in 1990.

‘World War Bob’ for Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2009 & 2011.

SHORT FILM

Writer/co-producer of ‘Chair with a View’.

AWARDS
Awgie for ‘Wollongong the Brave’.
Sammy for ‘The Norman Gunston Show’
Judge’s Prize at Mudfest for ‘A Chair with a View.’
AWG 2015 Fred Parsons Award for Contribution to Australian Comedy.