“The Time Machine” @ FLMNH (July 14)

The Florida Museum of Natural History’s “Creative B” summer film series features entertaining science fiction films and roundtable discussions by scholars, scientists, writers, and artists.

This summer’s time travel theme continues with George Pal’s 1960 film The Time Machine. Based on H.G. Wells’s  1895 novel of the same name, the film depicts the journeys of the Traveler – in Wells’s novel he is unnamed, in Pal’s film he is called “George” – from Victorian England to the year 802,701. In the distant future the human race has evolved into two distinct species. The effete, child-like Eloi frolic in the lush vegetation amid the ruins of a once-great civilization, with no memories of the past. The Morlocks, pale, grotesque, and aggressive, live in dimly-lit caverns below, tending to ancient machines whose purposes they no longer understand. The two species live in sinister symbiosis: the Morlocks provide the food, clothing, and shelter for the artless Eloi; the Eloi are the principal food of the Morlocks…

Produced and directed by Pal from a screenplay by David Duncan and starring Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot, and Tom Helmore, The Time Machine received an Oscar in 1961 for its innovative uses of time-lapse photography. MGM Art Director Bill Ferrari’s Art Nouveau-inspired design of the Time Machine was a major influence on subsequent steampunk fiction, film, and fashion.

The evening’s events begin at 7 PM. The screening will be preceded and followed by a roundtable discussion featuring:

• Ian Breheny – Museum Operations Specialist at the FLMNH, and co-founder of the film series
• Joe Haldeman – Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer, author of The Forever War, Forever Peace, and the Marsbound/Starbound/Earthbound trilogy.
• Terry Harpold – Associate Professor of English, Film & Media Studies at UF
• Tim Lawrence – Special effects artist and concept sculptor

The Time Machine is unrated and is suitable viewing for all audiences. Some scenes may be too intense for young viewers.

On July 21, beginning at 7 PM, the series continues with Nicholas Meyer’s Time After Time (1979).

All “Creative B” events are free and open to the public.