While in college, Franchi started a small,
mimeographed newsletter, the
New York Film Bulletin, which listed various screenings and other off-beat film events in the New York area. It also contained film reviews and articles on trends in the world of independent and U.S. released foreign films. When he left Fordham, he took the publication with him, upgraded it to a fully printed magazine and began, in the early 1960s, to print translations from the famed French film theory and film criticism magazine
Cahiers du cinéma. NYFB helped to popularize the views of the
French New Wave in the US, and helped introducing François Truffaut's
auteur theory to America via the early writings of
Andrew Sarris, among others. The magazine published two major interviews with
François Truffaut in which the French director outlined the evolution of his
Politique Des Auteurs. NYFB was edited and published from an office located in The Bleecker Street Cinema and the theater became a focal point for New Wave directors (Truffaut, Godard, Resnais, among others) visiting New York as well as a meeting place for New York auteurists and others. The long Sunday afternoon discussions involved Franchi, Sarris, Carlos Clarens,
Jonas Mekas,
Marshall Lewis. Sarris' review of
Jonathan Demme's
The Truth About Charlie alluded to Franchi. Sarris stated that "not to mention the dedication of the film to the late
Ted Demme and Marshall Lewis, one of the two guys in the back of the Bleecker Street Cinema (the other was Rudy Franchi) with whom I spent many convivial hours of Francophilia and cinephilia. After all that, how can I pretend to be objective about Mr. Demme’s labor of love?" After working in the Canadian film industry for several years, Franchi left the movie business to follow his growing interest in antiques and collectibles. He opened a shop called
Gallery 90/40 which specialized in
art nouveau and
art deco graphics and objects. This shop evolved into
The Nostalgia Factory, which focused on pop culture memorabilia such as original old advertising, movie, war and travel posters, and political items. In 1977 Franchi and his family returned to the United States, living in
Newport, Rhode Island, until 1987, when they moved to
Boston. In both cities, Rudy and Barbara ran Nostalgia Factory shops and in 1994 launched a web site, Nostalgia.com, which evolved into the largest seller of original
movie posters on the internet. In 2005, the Franchi's sold The Nostalgia Factory and nostalgia.com to
Newbury Comics and the couple moved to
Los Angeles. In 2006 he created the website Poster Appraisal Dot Com which offers free evaluations of movie, war, travel, rock and advertising posters. ==
Antiques Roadshow==