While visiting the Tel Aviv Cinematheque in Israel a few years back, Bruce Goldstein noticed a mural gracing the walls. Painted there in homage: Orson Welles from “Citizen Kane,” Charlie Chaplin in “City Lights” … and Goldie Hawn in “Private Benjamin.”
“I’m guessing [Hawn] must have donated to the Cinematheque,” says Goldstein with a chuckle.
Goldstein has seen it all in the movie world. His career stretches back decades, to when he was a New York teenager working for local theaters in Greenwich Village.
The New Yorker enjoys a global reputation as a programmer, film restorer and cinema entrepreneur. Over the past 22 years he has programmed more than 300 film series and retrospectives, and overseen hundreds of upgraded prints of classic films, including a handful of full restorations.
Now Goldstein gets some West Coast love, as the San Francisco International Film Festival bestows on him the Mel Novikoff Award, named for the late owner of the Castro Theatre. The award acknowledges individuals or institutions that enhance the public’s appreciation of world cinema.
The festival event takes place Sunday, May 3 at the Castro Theatre, followed by a screening of the 1957 Federico Fellini classic, “Nights of Cabiria,” in a restored version, courtesy of Goldstein.
Under Goldstein’s direction, the New York City nonprofit Film Forum has showcased several major restorations over the years, including classics of the past two decades, including “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” “Touch of Evil” and “Rear Window.”
Goldstein says the term “restoration” is often misapplied. Mostly he strikes new prints from original negatives. Occasionally, he will go full Monty and painstakingly restore a damaged negative to its original glory.
“The paradox is that the less famous films always look best because they haven’t been seen as much,” he says.
That’s why the negatives of classics like “Gone With the Wind” or “King Kong” are basically kaput. They’re worn out.
Speaking of “King Kong,” the 1933 original was censored. In one scene, Kong peels back Fay Wray’s clothes, then sniffs her. What to do? The censors snipped the footage out of the negative.
Goldstein could go on — he has a million stories from the cutting room.
His own story began in Long Island in the 1950s, a stone’s throw from Billy Joel’s boyhood home. Goldstein grew up proudly Jewish, though cinema dominated his interests early on.
“You grew up watching ‘The Little Rascals’ and ‘Laurel & Hardy,’ then W.C. Fields, then Bogart. Eventually you discover Ingmar Bergman.”
As much as he loves international cinema, he admits he still has some catching up to do regarding Israeli films (though he once shared a cab with noted Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai).
That hasn’t stopped Goldstein from visiting Israel and exploring that country’s expanding film industry. Though it hasn’t always been so easy for Goldstein to get there. On a departing flight for Ben Gurion Airport, the Israeli security guard studied his passport.
“He says, ‘Goldstein. What kind of name is that?’ I say, ‘It’s Jewish.’ He says, ‘Jewish? But you don’t speak Hebrew.’ ”
Bruce Goldstein will receive the Mel Novikoff Award at 5 p.m. Sunday, May 3, at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., S.F. For information, go to www.sffs.org or call (925) 866-9559.