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Sci/Film Screening: Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, USA, 1956, 98 mins)

When: —
Venue: Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square

No booking required

Sci/Film 11: AI and Robotics with a special 35mm screening of Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, USA, 1956, 98 mins)
Friday 26 January 6:00 9:00
In collaboration with the Department of Psychological Sciences

We are very happy to announce our next Sci/Film event on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a post-film discussion with Prof. Bob Fisher (Edinburgh) an expert in AI, Robotics, Computer Vision and the curator of the AI in Cinema online database.
Forbidden Planet is a landmark science-fiction film that is still inspiring filmmakers and AI researchers today. With its lush set designs and CinemaScope, Eastman Color images, there could be little mistaking Forbidden Planet for anything but an MGM production. The only film on our list to be set entirely in outer space, its a loose retelling of The Tempest, and in turn served as a clear inspiration for Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek.
With Walter Pidgeon's God-playing scientist conjuring monsters from his subconscious ('You sent your secret id out to murder them!') to trouble Leslie Nielson's crew the creature design terrifically realised by Disney animator, Joshua Meador the film's allusions to Jung and Shakespeare make for some marvellously kitsch operatics. Yet it's unsurprising that Forbidden Planet's breakout star proved to be its most expensive prop, the waddling comic-relief of Robby the Robot swiftly becoming one of the defining icons of 50s sci-fi. (http://www.bfi.org.uk)

The film is presented in a 35mm print from the BFI + Park Circus.

For further information on past and future Sci/Film screenings and our podcast please see our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BIMI01SciFilmSeries/

The Sci/Film series is funded by a Wellcome Trust ISSF (Institutional Strategic Support Fund) public engagement grant. BIMI is funded by four schools at Birkbeck: the School of Arts, the School of Law, the School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy, and the School of Science. The University of Pittsburgh is also a partner and co-funder.

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