Ivan Reitman’s life began far from the glamor of Hollywood. The later star director was born in 1946 in Komárno in the former Czechoslovakia. His mother had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and his father had fought in the resistance against the Nazis. Because the father owned a large vinegar factory, times did not get any easier for the Jewish Reitman family after the Second World War. Because after the Nazis were defeated, the communists targeted all the capitalists in the country – and Reitman Sr. was clearly one of them. When Ivan was four years old, the family first fled to Vienna and then left the continent entirely to emigrate to Canada, where they stayed with a relative in Toronto.
Young Ivan developed a great passion for the art of entertainment as a child. He did puppet theater for the family, performed as a solo entertainer at the summer camp, and later trundled through bars and coffee houses with a folk band. After school he studied music and theater at McMaster University in Hamilton and made his first short films.
When they first met, Bill Murray wanted to strangle him with his scarf
One of his first feature films was the horror comedy “Cannibal Girls”, 1973. A pristine B-Picture that was bought for distribution by legendary trash film producer Samuel Z. Arkoff and even made some money. Even as a young man, Reitman skilfully played off one of his most important talents: he had a perfect sense of the star potential of other people. He produced two of David Cronenberg’s first films in the 1970s. And he spotted two boys who would soon become comedy superstars: actors Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray.
However, the first meeting with Murray didn’t go so well, he later recalled with a grin – Murray almost strangled him. “I made the mistake of suggesting he could improve a role. Bill came up to me, pulled the scarf tight around my neck and said, ‘Hey, glad you came, see you.’ Then he dragged me to the door.”
Ivan Reitman (right) with his son Jason Reitman at the premiere of Ghostbusters: Legacy in New York in November 2021.
(Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP)
The men’s wrangling turned into a productive friendship, with Murray and Aykroyd Reitman shot again and again. Their joint masterpiece was “Ghostbusters – Die Geisterjäger” in 1984. A comedy, of course, but also a big-budget film with lavish special effects, with which Reitman ushered in a new phase in blockbuster cinema. “It was almost impossible to make that movie,” he later recalled, “especially for the early 1980s.”
Reitman saw comic potential in everyone. That he made a comedian out of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was then only known as “Terminator” and “Conan”, i.e. as a humorless fighting machine – another masterpiece. “Kindergarten Cop”, “Twins” and “Junior” are among the most important comedies of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Especially “Junior”, 1994, was of course pure slapstick. Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes pregnant, the screenplay must have written itself after this initial spark.
Reitman, of course, like all great comedy directors, had a good sense of timing. Above all, however, he mastered the most difficult balancing act of filmmaking masterfully: having every detail of a film, no matter how tiny, under control – and still giving his actors the feeling of being completely free. He also managed this feat with other directors, because he has also produced a lot in his career, including the hits “A Dog Named Beethoven” and “Space Jam”.
The last film of his life was also a producer job. Ghostbusters: Legacy was released last year, and the title is meant literally. His biggest hit sequel was directed by his son Jason Reitman. The family has now announced that Ivan Reitman died in his sleep on Saturday in Montecito, California. He was 75 years old.