He lived with his father Stanley (a professor) and mother Mildred in the Rosenbaum House, designed by notable architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

He attended Bard College, where he played piano in an amateur jazz ensemble that included future actors Chevy Chase as a drummer and Blythe Danner as a vocalist.

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.

[4] 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.

In August 2007, Rosenbaum marked the passing of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman with an op-ed piece in The New York Times, titled "Scenes from an Overrated Career.

"[6] He was a frequent contributor to the DVDBeaver website prior to the site's repurposing as a DVD producer.,[7] where he offered his alternative lists of genre films.

[9] It also includes works by important independent American directors (such as John Cassavetes and Jim Jarmusch) who were absent from the AFI list.