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.