Army of Shadows
"Rialto has made—and continues to make—a tremendous contribution to film culture in the United States."
— David Schwartz, Chief Curator, Museum of the Moving Image
Rialto Pictures was launched by film programmer extraordinaire Bruce Goldstein in 1997. Goldstein, best known as the Director of Repertory Programming at Film Forum in Manhattan, was inspired by the dearth of decent 35mm prints of foreign language classics then in U.S. distribution, as well as a long-held philosophy that classics should be freshly marketed for new audiences. A year later, Goldstein was joined by business partner Adrienne Halpern, with Eric Di Bernardo soon after joining the company as National Sales Director. In the twenty years since, Rialto has firmly established itself as “the gold standard of reissue distributors” (according to Kenneth Turan in The Los Angeles Times). Rialto, whose team now includes Marketing and Distribution Manager Dave Franklin, has reissued over 70 films and manages the Studiocanal library of over 2,000 titles. Indelible classics such as Grand Illusion, The Third Man, Nights of Cabiria, The Battle of Algiers, and Breathless are available in beautiful prints thanks to Rialto’s efforts, and the company has been responsible for major rediscoveries, including Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows and such neglected masterworks as the British films Went the Day Well? and It Always Rains on Sunday. Rialto’s work reveals a true cinephile’s attention to detail. Its 35mm prints and new digital restorations are lustrous and pristine, and international films are given fresh subtitles, improving on the titles from their original releases. With flair and showmanship, Rialto has made—and continues to make—a tremendous contribution to film culture in the United States, and the Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a selection of twenty of their finest pictures.
"Rialto Pictures: 20 Films for 20 Years" organized by Chief Curator of the Museum of the Moving Image David Schwartz
