rosenbaum moved to paris in 1969, working briefly as an assistant to director jacques tati and appearing as an extra in robert bresson's "four nights of a dreamer". while living there, he began writing film and literary criticism for "the village voice", "film comment" and "sight & sound". in 1974, he moved from paris to london, where he remained until march 1977, when he was offered a two-semester teaching position at the university of california, san diego by manny farber. farber had been a major influence on rosenbaum's criticism, but the two had never met until the latter arrived in san diego.