THE KEYMASTER
IVAN REITMAN UNLOCKED A NEW BREED OF COMEDY FILM: HEARTWARMING, WITTY AND TOTALLY OFF THE CHAIN. HERE, COLLABORATORS AND FAMOUS FANS WRITE EXCLUSIVE TRIBUTES TO A GIANT OF JOY
ILLUSTRATION PAUL SHIPPER
Ghostbusters Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd).
Ivan Reitman on the set of Animal House in 1978.
Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline in Dave.
“HE MADE ME REALISE THAT BEING FUNNY COULD HAVE POWER”
KUMAIL NANJIANI
ACTOR/WRITER
I WOULD NOT be a comedian or an actor if it weren’t for Ivan Reitman. Ghostbusters looms very large in my life: it’s literally my single favourite thing in the world (along with my wife). It has this anti-authority streak that runs through a lot of Ivan’s work. As a kid, you feel powerless. Watching these people not being taken seriously who then turn out to save New York and the world was a fantasy coming true for me. I think that thematically resonated for me, even if I couldn’t articulate it.
Watching Ghostbusters, I realised that being funny could have power. It felt like magic — if they could make scary ghosts funny, they could make anything funny. That’s a real superpower. And it also had this improvisational feel to it. The way they were speaking felt more like normal people hanging out, how my friends and I were talking (although we’re not nearly as witty). We’ve all seen a lot of comedy where the improvisation has gone off the rails and it just feels like two characters trying to make each other laugh. If you think of Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters, it’s all to serve his character’s point of view: with everything he says, you get to know him a bit more, or it moves the story along. Ghostbusters is the first time we see Bill Murray and go, “Oh, that’s the Bill Murray we know.” In Stripes you can see he’s working it out; in Ghostbusters, it’s fully formed. Obviously, Bill and Ivan were close creative partners, crafting who ‘Bill Murray’ was.