Bruce Goldstein
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Bruce Goldstein (born July 5, 1952) is a
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
based film programmer, distributor, documentarian, writer, producer, and publicist. He is best known for his work as the repertory programmer for
Film Forum The Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It is a four-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with up to 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, over ...
in New York. The magazine ''
Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition became ...
'' named him “one of the 101 essential people or places of New York,” citing him “for keeping showmanship alive.”


Early life

Bruce Goldstein, the son of Murray and Betty (Horowitz) Goldstein, was born in
Amityville, New York Amityville () is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village, village in the Babylon (town), New York, Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island, in New York ...
, on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
and raised in nearby Hicksville. He attended Hicksville High School and went on to
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
, dropping out to run a movie theater in
Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...
, on
Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...
, where he created his first repertory film calendars.


Career


Publicity and The Thalia

In the mid-1970s, he moved to
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
in New York City to work at the revival houses 
Bleecker Street Cinema The Bleecker Street Cinema was an art house movie theater located at 144 Bleecker Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It became a landmark of Greenwich Village and an influential venue for filmmakers and cinephiles through its screeni ...
 and  Carnegie Hall Cinema, where he supervised the production of the monthly film calendars and contributed to the programming. The first films he booked were two films by
John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...
(who he'd known in Provincetown): Multiple Maniacs and
Mondo Trasho ''Mondo Trasho'' is a 1969 American 16mm mondo black comedy film by John Waters. The film stars Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary and Mink Stole. It contains very little dialogue, the story being told mostly through musical cues. Plot ...
, which had their New York premieres at the Bleecker.Jones, Kent. ''The King of New York''. Film Comment, Vol. 48, No.6 After a two-year stint in London, working as production manager for a fashion forecasting company in Chelsea, Goldstein returned to New York to work as programmer, publicist, and co-director of the Thalia Theater, a revival house on the
Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...
. While at the theater, he and Thalia owner Richard Schwarz produced a compilation film called ''Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage'', which had national distribution through their own company, Manhattan Movietime. Both Hugh Hefner and then-First Lady
Nancy Reagan Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress who was the first lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in ...
requested prints for their own private screenings. While at the Thalia, Goldstein developed his flair for ballyhoo, putting on well-publicized events like a “Fay Way Scream-Alike” contest on the 50th anniversary of the premiere of ''
King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...
'' at
Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...
. He'd later create similar events for Film Forum, including a Betty Boop Look-A-like Contest, and recreations of
William Castle William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is known for the horror film, horror and thriller film, thriller B movie, B-movies he directed durin ...
gimmicks "Percept-o" and "Emerge-O" for '' The Tingler'' and ''
House on Haunted Hill ''House on Haunted Hill'' is a 1959 American horror film produced and directed by William Castle, written by Robb White and starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig, and Elisha Cook Jr. Price play ...
'', respectively. After leaving the Thalia in 1984, Goldstein began the p.r. firm of Falco & Goldstein (his imaginary partner, Sidney Falco, was the character played by
Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor with a career that spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films, in roles co ...
in ''
Sweet Smell of Success ''Sweet Smell of Success'' is a 1957 American film noir Satire (film and television), satirical drama (film and television), drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, ...
''), with clients including New Yorker Films, Kino International, and
Warner Bros. Animation Warner Bros. Animation Inc. (abbreviated as WBA) is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Group, a division of Warner Bros., which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and serves as the animation divis ...
.


Film Forum

In 1986, Goldstein was hired by Karen Cooper, director of New York's
Film Forum The Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It is a four-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with up to 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, over ...
, to program the theater's second screen. Since then, he has produced four repertory calendars for Film Forum a year. Goldstein has created over 500 film festivals, and has been instrumental in putting over 1,000 new 35mm prints into circulation. He is known for his exhaustive retrospectives and thematic festivals, popularizing “Pre-Code” movies, interactive “gimmick” movie screenings (especially
William Castle William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is known for the horror film, horror and thriller film, thriller B movie, B-movies he directed durin ...
's '' The Tingler''), his tributes to in-person guests (
Fay Wray Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international r ...
,
Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin ( ; December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, where he continued hi ...
,
Leslie Caron Leslie Claire Margaret Caron (; born 1 July 1931) is a French and American actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards. Caron b ...
,
Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; 23 September 1940 – 14 December 2019)
,
Robert Downey Sr. Robert John Downey Sr. ( Elias Jr.; June 24, 1936 – July 7, 2021) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He was known for writing and directing the underground film '' Putney Swope'' (1969), a satire on the New York Madison Ave ...
and many others), and for long run rediscoveries in 35mm prints and digital restorations.


Rialto Pictures

In 1997, Goldstein founded
Rialto Pictures Rialto Pictures is a film distributor founded in 1997 by Bruce Goldstein and based in New York City. A year later, Adrienne Halpern joined him as partner. In 2002, Eric Di Bernardo became the company's National Sales Director. It was described ...
, described as "the gold standard of reissue distributors" by Los Angeles Times/NPR film critic
Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
, as a means to exhibit classics that were not in distribution in the U.S. Since then, the company has reissued over 75 international films. Some of Rialto's releases include Fellini's
Nights of Cabiria ''Nights of Cabiria'' () is a 1957 drama film co-written and directed by Federico Fellini. The film features Giulietta Masina as Cabiria, a sex worker living in Rome. The cast also features François Périer and Amedeo Nazzari. The film is ba ...
(for which a previously lost scene was restored), the original 1954 Japanese version of ''
Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...
'',
Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as F ...
's ''
Contempt In colloquial usage, contempt usually refers to either the act of despising, or having a general lack of respect for something. This set of emotions generally produces maladaptive behaviour. Other authors define contempt as a negative emotio ...
'' and '' Breathless'', '' Elevator to the Gallows'', ''
The Battle of Algiers ''The Battle of Algiers'' (; ) is a 1966 Italian-Algerian war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. It is based on action undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa, the ...
'', '' Grand Illusion'' and the first U.S. release of '' Made in U.S.A.''. In 2006, the company released Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 Army of Shadows, never before shown in the U.S.; it was named the Best Foreign Film of the Year by both the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle and the New York Film Critics Circle. Since 2012, Rialto has been the main U.S. theatrical and non-theatrical representative of the Studiocanal library of 6,500 international titles. In 2007, the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
presented a retrospective tribute to Goldstein's company, entitled "Rialto Pictures: Reviving Classic Cinema." Goldstein has written and produced many of Rialto's trailers and has served as art director on the company's posters. He has also worked closely on editing the subtitles of Rialto's foreign-language films. Goldstein has personally written subtitles for five of the company's releases. In 2018, he made a short film called ''The Art of Subtitling'', as a supplement to the Criterion/Rialto Blu-ray release of Julien Duvivier's ''
Panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and frantic agitation consistent with a fight-or-flight reaction. ...
(Panique)''. In 2010 Goldstein was nominated by James Billington,
Librarian of Congress The librarian of Congress is the head of the Library of Congress, appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, for a term of ten years. The librarian of Congress also appoints and overs ...
, to the Board of the
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
.


Awards


Filmography


References


External links


Rialto Pictures Official Website
''The Villager''
Bruce Goldstein's Top 10
The Criterion Collection
Repertory Film Programming: A Web Exclusive Supplement to a Critical Symposium
includes an essay on repertory film in New York by Goldstein. {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldstein, Bruce 1952 births Living people Writers from New York City Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres People from Hicksville, New York People from Amityville, New York