Ben Apfelbaum

JAMIE LEE CURTIS, HALLOWEEN AND THE BLACK CARPET

Jamie Lee Curtis  is married to a Baron, the fifth Baron Hayden-Guest, a hereditary British peerage. However, he is more commonly known as Christopher Guest, writer, director and actor in a series of wicked satires starting with “This is Spinal Tap’, ‘Waiting for Guffman’, ‘Best in Show’, ‘A Mighty Wind’, ‘For Your Consideration’ and ‘Mascots’.

One might think that she was a latter day Meghan Markle marrying up in the world to the British peerage. Jamie Lee Curtis came from Hollywood royalty being the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

Janet Leigh’s most famous role was in ‘Psycho’ and in particular the shower scene. One might say that Halloween’s Jamie Lee Curtis is both a literal and metaphoric daughter of horror.

It is an auspicious time for this movie’s release as it is 40 years since she made her film debut in 1978 starring as Laurie Strode in John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’. She has reprised the role of Laurie in four sequels, Halloween 11 (1981), Halloween H20 (1998), Halloween Resurrection (2002), and Halloween (2018).

The current release coincides with the celebration of ‘Halloween’ on 31 October. These films and others such as ‘The Fog’ and ‘Prom Night’ caused her to acquire the epithet of the ‘scream queen’ Nevertheless Jamie Lee Curtis is a much more versatile actress than just being  a modern day filmic version of Edvard Munch. She is also a wonderful comedienne in such classic comedies as ‘Trading Places’, ‘A Fish called Wanda’, ‘True Lies’, and ‘Freaky Friday’. In fact it is her comedies which have garnered the most award nominations.

Even though she was the producer and star of the latest ‘Halloween’, she has constantly stated that she would never attend a horror film. Nonetheless she is delighted that there are people who love horror She is especially chuffed by Halloween’s box office success. It took a better than expected $US 77.5 million to date, despite it being made for $US 10 million. Curtis has stated that it had the best opening weekend for a horror movie with a female star. However Curtis’ proudest achievement is that it was the biggest opening of any movie featuring a woman over 55. Curtis herself is 59.

Walking the black carpet at the Event cinemas in Sydney’s CBD she looked regal as she mingled with delighted and awe struck fans.

Long may she reign.

Featured pic Jamie Lee Curtis. All pics by Ben Apfelbaum ©

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.