In Brief: The Asheville Film Society's Budget Big Screen series returns with Asheville's own Lisi Russell introducing Ken Russell's Mahler — her late husband's brilliant biographical film on composer Gustav Mahler, a film conductor Klaus Tennstedt said was "the best film ever made about music." I'm not about to argue with him. Mahler is from the richest period…

In Brief: More a dark fantasy than an outright horror movie (though it has been claimed by the horror community), Death Takes a Holiday (1934) is the kind of film that could only have been made by Paramount Pictures and could only have been made at the time it was. Mitchell Leisen’s surprisingly complex (especially with its…

In Brief: Orson Welles has a scene-stealing field day in this rather free adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' Joseph Balsamo, Mémoires d'un Médecin — the story of Cagliostro (née Joseph Balsamo) rechristened Black Magic (1949) and starring Welles as, of course, Cagliostro. And based on the on-screen evidence, Welles stole more than scenes. Venerable Russian character…

In Brief: When Turtles Can Fly (2004) first showed here, I wrote: The first thing you notice about Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly is how much more technically accomplished it is than most films we see from this part of the world. The colors are bright and vivid, the images are sharp and detailed, the compositions…

In Brief: Yes, this is the movie that produced the song of the title — though it only appears as a song in the film in orchestral form. (This was common at this period. The song versions of the famous themes from The Uninvited ("Stella by Starlight") and Laura ("Laura") — both made the previous year — do…

In Brief: The idea that we are in the midst of a kind of horror film renaissance these days is given ample support by this horror comedy from New Zealand by first-time feature writer-director Gerard Johnstone. Housebound (which, typically, is being remade for American consumption by New Line) got almost no release in the U.S. but managed to blow away…

The Story: An aging rock star receives a letter sent to him by John Lennon in 1971 and decides to turn his life around to become the man he wanted to be. The Lowdown: Bright dialogue and great chemistry between Al Pacino and the rest of the cast raise this fairly predictable comedy-drama to very…

In Brief: Ladies in Lavender (2004) marked the first — and so far only — film to be written and directed by character actor Charles Dance. Why he stopped after this perfectly credible first film is a mystery. It's not like Ladies in Lavender was some huge hit, but for a little film playing in…

In Brief: Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover was the art film of 1990, which is to say that if you saw only one art film that year, this was probably the one you saw. It was daring. It had a hint of scandal attached to its excesses. It was full of nudity, sex,…

In Brief: I remember seeing John Boorman’s Excalibur when it first came out in 1981. I remember being completely blown away by its visual splendor and Boorman’s fascinating attempt to present the Arthurian legend in terms of Wagner opera (which pervades the soundtrack). I also remember the scorn with which the film was received by a number…

The Story: Generation X-ers in midlife crisis mode fall under the spell of millennial hipsters. The Lowdown: Here we have the year's first great film — a sharply penetrating satire on generational foibles and modern life. Writer-director Noah Baumbach pulls of the incredible feat of taking no prisoners without ever being cruel. A must-see.

The Story: A loving look in on classical pianist Seymour Bernstein. The Lowdown: A thoroughly charming, warm look at a man who may make you rethink what "greatness" means. If you only see one documentary this year, make it this one.

The Story: Fact-based story of a Holocaust survivor fighting to regain art works stolen from her family by the Nazis. The Lowdown: Solid drama of the cultural-historical kind that simplifies much but gets the essentials right. Occasionally heavy-handed, but it makes a fine vehicle for Helen Mirren and — surprisingly — Ryan Reynolds.

In Brief: It would be difficult to decide which of Brian De Palma's movies is the most ... well, insane, but Body Double (1984) — his heady mix of Rear Window, Vertigo and De Palma over-the-top crazy — is certainly in the running. While there's no escaping the heavy dose of Hitchcock — and I'm not sure I'd…

The Story: A disgraced invading alien and a young earth girl team up to find her relocated mother. The Lowdown: Colorful, dull, unoriginal and often irritating. Strictly for younger children and Rihanna fans.

In Brief: This was a "fan pick" — and one that happened to fall on the right day (or close enough). Apparently, April Fool's Day is well-loved — at least by those who saw it when it came out in 1986 and were at an impressionable age. Even if I had seen it when it…

In Brief: It's the Asheville Film Society's slightly late Easter offering — Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Superstar, a film that has kind of fallen by the wayside over the years. I'm not sure why. Most complaints usually center on the casting of Ted Neely as Jesus — despite the fact that man has made a…

The Story: Six anarchic, darkly comic tales with the unifying themes of revenge and losing control. The Lowdown: Often hilariously funny satire on human nature at its most extreme — as seen through a collection of stories. Mostly delicious in its anarchy and bleakly amused worldview, though some stories are better than others.

In Brief: Ken Russell's Dance of the Seven Veils (1970) — subtitled A Comic Strip in 7 Episodes on the Life of Richard Strauss — was his final film for the BBC Omnibus program. It was broadcast only once, followed by a hailstorm of controversy (an attempt by Britain's "Watchdog for Morality" Mary Whitehouse to…