"The cinema is an invention without a future," said Louis Lumiere, once. If his words were prophetic, we would, today, miss out on the incredible excitement of Oscar evenings (and numerous other award ceremonies), the pure satisfaction of watching a good movie, and the juicy gossip about Hollywood stars and their glamorous lives.

The magic of the movies touches many lives, and so do the people who direct, produce and act in them. Whether it is Cameron Crowe with his autobiographical, 'Almost Famous', Tom Hanks in a role of a lifetime in 'Cast Away' or Michelle Yeoh's gravity-defying stunts in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.'

So, while Oscar fever grips all movie fans, we take a look back at the people who made the movies possible. The stalwarts and who saw beyond still images, inventions like the kinetoscope and the magic lantern that revolutionised the still image, and the earliest actors and actresses and actors, who fought ridicule (since acting was deemed to be a 'fallen art' even lower than the theatre) to lay the path for today's shining stars!

'When we watch a motion picture, we are actually seeing many thousands of separate still pictures.'
Arthur Knight ('Motion Picture' article from World Book Encyclopaedia, 1981 ed.)

The history of moving images began much before what most people consider the beginning. It is not stars like Charlie Chaplin or Mary Pickford, or even major distributors like Universal Pictures who were responsible for what we see on the screen today. It goes back far beyond, and has been the cumulative effort of many people who, over a period of time, have been responsible for putting the whole picture together.

A perfect place to start would be the Complete History of Cinematography, a site maintained by Paul Burns, film historian, researcher, author, former journalist and photographer based in Canada. Instead of dealing with the modern era of films, Burns tackles the period between 900 BC to 1895+.

The chronology is presented in 15 chapters dealing with cinematography at a deeper level. Beginning with pin-hole images, the Camera Obscura effect and entertaining magic lantern, an ancient projector illuminated by candles and lamps, he also covers the study of persistence of vision - probably the first modern step towards motion pictures.

Burns also takes us through developments such as phantasmagoria, motion study analysis, photography, and stop-action series photography that contributed to the growth of motion pictures. Each chapter highlights the inventions and major discoveries of that era and is interspersed with images and motion clips wherever relevant.

For example, you can see a clip of the now-famous, yet forgotten scene from 'The Great Train Robbery' (1903) which scared audiences out of their seats because of one of the outlaws firing his six shooter directly at the camera. At the time, and for the next decade, this scene was remembered as one of only a few, in the very early days of film.

The Zoopraxiscope, a moving picture projector, was designed by Eadweard Muybridge in 1879. It was Muybridge's work which began to show that the possibility of actual moving pictures or cine-photography, was a reality and not far from perfection. The clips of 'The California Horse Story' used images drawn from Muybridge's photographs and can be viewed here. He astonished audiences who were witness to the illusion of motion projected on a screen -- probably the birth of the very first movies.

A dedicated site to the life and times of Eadweard Muybridge, the father of motion pictures is maintained by Michael Linder (the man behind America's Most Wanted and Future Quest). This well designed and visually attractive site has clips from Muybridge's experiments with motion, a background of his work including his experiments with stereography to capture California in the 1860s and taking 3D portraits of the city's indigenous people.

The site also lists spicy facts like how Muybridge, born Edward James Muggeridge, married Flora Stone, a 21-year-old clerk who divorced her first husband. Linder also touches upon the sensational story of how Muybridge discovered his son was not his own, killed his wife's lover, and then literally got away with murder by pleading insanity. There are also links to other sites where you can get more information on this eccentric genius, who was arguably one of the pioneers of creating the effect of motion through photography.

On Dec 28, 1895 the Lumiere Brothers publicly projected a motion picture on to a screen for the first time at a Paris café. Their experiments with the kinetoscope, which Antoine Lumiere saw in Paris, resulted in the first movie - if you can call it that - of workers leaving the Lumiere factory. When they began showing their short films publicly, audiences were astonished to see projected images on a large screen.

"The task I'm trying to achieve above all is to make you see."
-- D.W. Griffith

A significant step in understanding of the potential of film as a medium of art occurred with the making of film maker D. W. Griffith's full-length epic, 'Birth of a Nation' (1915). Though his film was largely criticised for its overt racist tones, he followed it up with 'Intolerance' (1916), 'Broken Blossoms' (1919) and 'America' (1924) among many others. He was widely regarded as a pioneer in the American film industry, and his times saw the rise of several artistes like Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian and Dorothy Gish and Richard Barthelmess.

A few other sites that deal with films on a historical basis are Cinema History, maintained by Prof. Robert E. Yahnke, General College, University of Minnesota. From the silent era in films to the late 1990s, Yahnke delves into cinema history through ten chapters that he has put up so far. This classic film site also gives an insight into the birth of cinema and takes visitors through the most memorable movies of every era, beginning from the 1920s.

"But I want to be alone."
Greta Garbo in the Grand Hotel (1932)

A reference to the history of cinema would probably not be complete without a mention of the stars who have graced the silver screen. The glamorous lives of actors and actresses whose lives we follow on and off screen as well, and who grace the covers of many glossy magazines the world over. Whether it was Charlie Chaplin who first captured our hearts with his innocent bumbling in 'The Kid', Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in 'Gone with the Wind', or Anthony Hopkins who terrorised in 'Silence of the Lambs', the movies have created memorable characters who have survived in audience minds through the decades.

The Greatest Films is one site that could keep a film buff absorbed for hours. Besides a section on the history of films, other sections like '100 Greatest Films', 'Great Film Scenes', 'Greatest Directors' are a treat because of the memories they evoke. A personal favourite is the 'Great Film Quotes' section, where you can sample unforgettable one liners like: "...Bond. James Bond." (Dr. No); "I'll be back." (Terminator); "You talkin' to me?" (Taxi Driver), "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake..." (Casablanca) and the more recent "I'm the king of the world!" (Titanic).

On the threshold of the 73 Academy Awards, as movies fight it out for the top spot and actors and actresses gear up for the special night with their 'thank you' speeches, we dedicate a special message to all those who, over the decades and centuries, have all contributed in their own way to make the magic of the movies possible: "Here's looking at you!"

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