Project Hail Mary, How To Make a Killing and Ready Or Not

It's the Easter holidays, and the films are fun if not inspiring. First up and it's a Ryan Gosling vehicle Project Hail Mary  together with an alien sparring about how to go about preventing the end of the world. Best of all is Sandra Hüller, who has impressed me before. Anatomy of a Fall, I'm Your Man and Zone of Interest. Her kaioki is wonderful. The special effects are top drawer, and a big hand of applause for the model makers for Rocky. (Not to be confused with the boxer or the character from Chicken Run). 

Even the story and dialogue are well written by Drew Goddard based on the book by Andy Weir. It's just the part in the middle that became a little tiresome. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have fortunately made a light-hearted story about a very dark subject. The soundtrack is excellent, with songs from Harry Styles (Sign of the Times), Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles, Neil Diamond and, wow, The Scorpions' Wind of Change. I agreed with Henry K. Miller in Sight and Sound Magazine, who said the film was hard to follow at times, but it was good.

How To Make A Killing is actually a remake of the Ealing Comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (see my post of 11th November 2024) produced by Michael Balcon in 1949. It seemed that the new film tried to distance itself as much as possible from the original, which I found to be right. It still starts with the villain in prison and a countdown to his execution. He relates his story to a priest. It's all quite jolly, except perhaps for Margaret Qualley, who is pestering him about those early murders. Why does he then not just stop? This is not Margaret's best performance, but that may be the script. 

So it's all very colourful (the opposite of Kind Hearts' black and white) and surprisingly inoffensive. The very last scene was also very clever and reminded me of the original American version that changed the Ealing ending. In those days America was not allowed to see murderers profit from their crimes. In the April edition of Sight and Sound magazine, Sophia Satchell-Baeza says it "rarely manges to raise a pulse" and "fun but instantly forgettable". What did she expect?

More "fun but instantly forgettable" is a better summary for Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come. I have to say that the producers certainly hit on ways to make this sequel different from the original. Firstly the introduction of bickering sisters, which was central to the movie, was just genius. Then multiple families, not just one. The second half was a bit too predictable, but there were enough funny bits to keep us amused. Samara Weaving is fine in repeating her character from the first movie, and Kathryn Newton plays her sister perfectly well. Add in Elijah Wood, Sarah Michelle Geller and a tiny role for David Cronenberg. 

There were enough good songs to keep me interested, such as 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?', 'These Boots Were Made For Walking', 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' and, would you believe, two renderings of Vivaldi's Gloria in excelsis. I'm still laughing at that. It was the review by Mark Kermode that finally persuaded me to go all the way to Hemel Hempstead, and I'm glad I did. Just.

Family History Revisited Part 1 - How It All Began

 

I haven't recently thought about my family history until now, when I realised that there were things I had done and not recorded before I started this blog. So, what I want to do now is to summarise the highlights of my searches in chronological order. There will be little about the family members themselves and more about the process of their discovery. 

First Thoughts

First of all, I found it difficult to remember how this all started. What I do know is that I had certain documents about my father's ancestors, so it was this side of the family upon which I first concentrated. I also found this post on my blog dated 2nd February 2007, only eight weeks after my very first post.

Mum and Dad

In April 1999, I was sorting through papers from files left by my stepmother, Margaret. It was then that I started thinking more about Mum and Dad and their life together. How they came from very different backgrounds and became the first generation from both families to move away from Yorkshire. I have already made a few notes from talking to various aunts, but there is a lot stored in the memory banks that I need to set down. I then thought I would like to know more about their ancestors.

Family History

So in the September of 1999, I found an evening class in genealogy. This gave some good advice on tracing family history. I spent the next two years doing all the basic research, meeting relatives etc and I came to the point when it would mean a lot of travel to local archives throughout the country and time on the computer to write up my findings. I decided to put everything on hold until I retired. When my new computer arrives, I want to purchase "Family Historian 3" which seems to be the best bit of software recording details of all my ancestors and creating charts.

Genealogy of the Family of Roberts of Sheffield 1937

I was already in possession of some important documents that set me on my way. The first is the "Genealogy of the Family of Roberts of Sheffield 1937" (see photo at the top), recorded in my post on December 1st 2008: "The 1937 Family Tree". It was one of a few drafted by Charles Augustus Roberts, and this version ended up with my great-grandfather Vincent Littlewood Roberts. This was for him to enter his descendants in the blank spaces under his name. But this never happened.

I believe this document came into the possession of my grandmother and then on to my father. It provided extremely useful information for the start of my searches, although not always completely accurate. 

My Evening Class

Dragging down all my files from the loft (four lever arch files and some loose paperwork) what I didn't expect to find were my notes from that very first meeting of the family history evening class of 23rd September 1999.

If I remember correctly, one of the documents we were given at the first meeting was a birth brief for recording family information. Below is an extract from mine. 

Some Memorials of the Family of Roberts

There are five editions of the book "Some Memorials of the Family of Roberts of Queens Tower, Sheffield". The first published by Sir Samuel Roberts of Queens Tower, Sheffield is dated 1862. On the distribution was my great grandfather Vincent Littlewood Roberts. It came into my possession through my grandfather and father. It was a loose leaf copy that I had made into a book. It contains various handwritten amendments made by Vincent.  

I also found a copy of the the third edition dated 1924 that also came into the possession of my father. It confirms the second edition was published by Samuel Roberts of Park Grange in May 1887, and then this third edition by Samuel Roberts of Eaton Place, London. 

I then met his descendent Sir Samuel Roberts just before Christmas 1999 at the London office of Henry Boot on Conduit Street. He gave me a copy of the latest book published by his father Peter Roberts in August 1971.

Like the earlier edition, the book contains a family tree. It includes one Jacob Roberts (from whom I am descended), the elder brother of Samuel Roberts, who is the ancestor of Sir Samuel Roberts above. 

In the "Introduction Extended", Peter Roberts says, "In 1970 a special study of the area of Holmfirth was carried out." This led to discovering more ancestors, including one Oliver Roberts, born 1496? as the document below. 

Finally, I found that the present Sir Samuel Roberts updated the Memorials book with his large volume, "Follow the Master". I found a copy that contains only a couple of pages relating to our side of the family.

The Seventeen Generations of the Roberts Family

I did in fact list all Roberts descendents in my post of 6th March 2023. If we now add my brother Paul's grandson, this makes eighteen. 

Therefore, all the research had been done for everything before our common ancestor Jacob Roberts born 1697. My post of 6th March 2023 details all the male descendents from Jacob Roberts below.

Sheffield Family History Society

I became a member of the Sheffield Family History Society in the spring of 1999. Their journals and publications provided useful information. Their publications included that vital Sheffield Burials Index and the link to the Church of All Saints, Ecclesall, which I visited on 15th June 2009. See post 22nd June 2009.

Visit to Sheffield 29th December 1999

This visit should not be confused with that later visit in 2009, as noted above. My notes from that first visit are as follows: 

Below is the Roberts Memorial in Dore Churchyard. The inscriptions are for David Littlewood Boyd Roberts, an uncle who died in infancy; my grandfather, Stanley Boyd Roberts; and my grandmother, Edith Haywood Roberts. See notes above.

As this takes us to the end of 1999, it feels the right way to end Part 1. I have not yet started my searches for records of my family, but this comes next at the Family Record Centre in Islington.