Voyaging to a 'Forbidden Planet' with a real scientist
Who better to introduce the 1956 sci-fi classic ``Forbidden Planet" tomorrow night at 7 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre than Rodney Brooks, director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, professor of robotics, and chief technical officer of iRobot Corp?
You might remember Brooks as one of the four ``obsessives" profiled in Errol Morris's 1997 film ``Fast, Cheap & Out of Control." In his 2002 book ``Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us," Brooks lays out in even more detail his continued passion, writing that the day will come when robots are improved enough that humans will no longer ``retain tribal specialness, differentiating ourselves from" them. Ultimately, he thinks, humans will one day ``accept robots as emotional machines, and thereafter start to empathize with them and attribute free will, respect, and ultimately rights to them."
Decide for yourself if ``Forbidden Planet" advances or detracts from the cause. The movie features Leslie Nielsen as the commander of a spaceship whose crew -- which includes Robby the Robot, who even got his own billing on the film's lobby card -- has to battle an invisible monster on a distant planet.
The next ``Science on Screen" event at the Coolidge will be June 19, with ornithologist David Allen Sibley, author and illustrator of `` The Sibley Guide to Birds" series, talking about the documentary ``Winged Migration." The Boston Society of Film Critics gave ``Winged Migration" its award for best cinematography in 2003. Details about both events are at 617-734-2500 and www.coolidge.org.
IN TOWN: Ethiopian-born 24-year old Sirak M. Sabahat, who stars in Radu Mihaileanu's ``Live and Become," will be at the screening of the film next Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts. The film is being presented as part of a mini-festival of eight encore presentations from last November's Boston Jewish Film Festival; ``Live and Become" won the audience award for best feature at that fest. The film is also showing today at 1 p.m.
``Live and Become" follows a young Ethiopian boy who is sent to Israel by his mother to escape famine. The transport was arranged under a program called ``Operation Moses" to get Jewish orphans out of the country. As it turns out, however, the boy is neither Jewish nor an orphan. The character is played by three actors, with Sabahat portraying him as a young medical student settled into his new country.
Director Mihaileanu, born in Romania and now living in France, told the Cineuropa website last year that he was inspired by the life story of an Ethiopian refugee who he met in Los Angeles. After he ``spent the night crying my eyes out," Mihaileanu was determined to make an inspirational movie around the story. ``There are two things I will never be able to do in my films: depict mediocre characters -- even if I like some films which do that -- and convey the general idea that life is not worth living. Whatever happens -- for life is never easy but full of tragedies and difficult moments -- I believe life is a gift."
Also playing a number of times this week and through June 11 is ``Fateless," Lajos Koltai's 2005 drama about a young Hungarian Jew who survives the Holocaust. The film is Koltai's debut as a director; he usually works as a cinematographer, as on 2004's ``Being Julia," with Annette Bening.
For screening times and a full list of films , call 617-244-9899 or go to www.bjff.org/events.
PENN PALS: On Tuesday the Brattle Theatre will be the site of a special screening of writer/director Jeff Stanzler's new psychological thriller ``Sorry Haters." The movie stars Robin Wright Penn as a TV executive whose conversation with a Muslim cabdriver (Abdellatif Kechiche) leads them on a journey of unexpected twists and turns. After the screening there will be a Q&A with Stanzler.
The event is sponsored by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film and begins at 7 p.m.; tickets are $10. For more information, call 617-876-6837 or go to www.brattlefilm.org.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: Larisa Shepitko's 1976 ``The Ascent," a film about two Soviet prisoners of war that is said to be her masterpiece, plays Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts (617-267-9300 and www.mfa.org/film). And a collection of short films documenting resistance to the Vietnam War, including a 1968 profile of the Boston Draft Resistance Group, plays Friday at 9 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
