Despite the sheer beauty and spectacle of numerous documentaries, art films, and travelogues, despite the impressive financial success of such a recent development as Cinerama, the movies are at heart a form of fiction, like the play, the novel, or the short story.

Despite Edmund's respected intelligence and abilities, he has no personal fortune to speak of, apart from his frequently fluctuating wage packet from the Prince, as he says: " If I'm running short of cash, all I have to do is go upstairs and ask Prince Fat-head for a rise.

Despite being short on cash at times, he often refused money that his friends offered him out of their own pockets.

Despite significant efforts, British control of Northern European waters rendered these ambitions impractical in the short term, and the Royal Navy remained firmly in control of the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite initial activity in the Lords, his career there was cut short by the House of Lords Act 1999.

Despite its long neck and legs, the giraffe's body is relatively short.

Despite recording the most successful home and away season in the game's history, the club went one win short of back-to-back premierships in losing the 2008 AFL Grand Final, but won the 2009 Grand Final against St Kilda.

Despite some stubborn resistance by some patriots, especially at Durrës, the Italians made short work of the Albanians.

Despite its small size and relatively short existence, the exact nature of the kingdom and its origins, customs, laws, and population is still debated.

Despite his short time as Pope he made a significant contribution to the organization of the Catholic Church.

Despite its short lifetime, some radon gas from natural sources can accumulate to far higher than normal concentrations in buildings, especially in confined areas such as attics and basements.

Despite its short run, The Westerner and Peckinpah were nominated by the Producers Guild of America for Best Filmed Series.

Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast was widely hailed as ahead of its time.

Despite his great power and prestige, the Dagda is sometimes depicted as oafish and crude, even comical, wearing a short, rough tunic that barely covers his rump, dragging his great penis on the ground.

Despite his short reign he made two important contributions to Roman government which outlasted him.

Despite the fact that we lack background knowledge to indicate that there are dramatically fewer men than short people, we still find ourselves inclined to reject the conclusion.

Despite his short tenure in office, Garfield was able to appoint a Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States and four other federal judges.

Despite the short duration of the Qin Dynasty, it was very influential on the structure of future dynasties.

Despite their short period of use, almost all of the stamps are cheaply available both used and unused.

" Despite being a short speech, it voiced the spirit of the Parliament and its sense of universality.

Despite such unpromisingly reactionary trappings the Schimmelpenninck regime actually accomplished more in its short existence than the previous regimes had accomplished in the ten years since 1795.

Despite his short reign and his writing off of the west Marcian is considered one of the best of the early Eastern Roman Emperors.

Despite his short life, he is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial Latin period.

Despite its short atmospheric half life of 7 years, methane has a global warming potential of 62 over 20 years and 21 over 100 years ( IPCC, 1996 ; Berner and Berner, 1996 ; vanLoon and Duffy, 2000 ).

Despite its overwhelmingly negative reception and short run, the series still has been rebroadcast in later years, with VH1 and A & E Network airing it on separate occasions later in the 1990s, and Trio airing it in the 2000s.

Despite a brief spell at a traditional preparatory school at the age of seven for one year, ` Abdu ' l-Bahá received no formal education.

Despite Guy Montag's attempts to break her from the spell society has on her, Mildred continues to be shallow and indifferent.

Despite the two Manchester clubs attracting supporters from Stockport, Stockport County did enjoy a spell of success over their neighbours Manchester City.

Despite his spell at Liverpool being short and disappointing, he was at that time the most expensive player ever to be sold by the club.

Despite a belief by the Lazio owner Sergio Cragnotti that Capello had made a verbal agreement to coach his club, Capello instead returned to Milan for a brief and less successful spell.

Despite a disappointing spell with the Trotters – eight league appearances, all as a substitute, the first in a 1 – 3 away defeat against Portsmouth – Wilhelmsson was instrumental in closing the club's signing of countryman Johan Elmander for a record transfer fee, for the 2008 – 09 season.

Despite her kind heart, Miss Cackle can be intimidating when she wants to, and has occasionally broken into fits of rage at Mildred, most notably both when Mildred humiliated the reputation of the Academy by ruining a broomstick display to honour the Wizards ' Council ( Ethel had cursed Mildred to ensure she would make a fool of herself ), and after she incorrectly believed Mildred was cheating at the school sport's day, after Enid cast an improper spell upon Mildred to make sure she won the pole vaulting competition.

Despite his weak spell count, each spell he performs is treated as an epic event.

Despite missing the last game of his initial loan spell through suspension, having been sent off in the match against Charlton Athletic, the loan was extended for a further month, and again for a third and final month, until 17 January 2009.

Despite not being trained in magic he managed to " learn the odd spell " in his years in Scot's service.

Despite spending his loan spell as first choice goalkeeper, he started the 2008 – 09 season as second choice goalkeeper to loanee Tom Heaton.

Despite goalscoring records in France and Europe to add to his World Cup medal, he was named as the Premier League's worst ever striker by the British newspaper Daily Mail, in recognition of his brief and unsuccessful spell at Newcastle United.

Despite a failure of 16 in the first test, he produced a fine spell of batting with a good 92 in the second innings.

Despite Wigan's success in finishing 10th in the Premiership and reaching the League Cup final, it was a disappointing spell professionally for Francis, who did not feature as much as he would have liked to.

Despite his loan spell at West Ham having ended, the club continued talks with Portsmouth regarding a deal to bring Ben Haim back ; the two clubs could not come to an agreement, while financial issues prevented him from linking up with Pompey.

* Despite only spending a short spell at Barnet at the beginning of his playing career, Freedman was voted as the fans ' favourite player in the club's all-time history in late 2007.

Despite a successful spell at Rangers, Mackay wanted to manage in his own right, and therefore moved onto Blackburn Rovers.

Despite the subsequent acquisition of players like Mo Johnston and Peter Beardsley, Everton remained little more than a mid table side during Kendall's second spell and he resigned on 4 December 1993.

Despite showing fine early form in his first few matches for Middlesbrough, the remainder of his spell at the club was a struggle to justify his price tag and during the 2004 – 05 season he was loaned out to Serie A club Parma, moving ( yet again on loan ) on January 2005 to Siena.

Despite an influx of new players, continued poor results meant Stourbridge's 29-year spell at Southern League level ended with defeat in the last game of the season at Hinckley United in May 2000.

Despite an excellent goals-to-games ratio when fit, injuries curtailed his Derby career, and he was eventually given a free transfer, with which he returned to Croatia for a brief spell at Dinamo Zagreb to wind up his career.

Despite only playing in 14 games, and being cup-tied from the FA Cup, Pienaar finished his spell with 6 assists, the most of anyone at Everton for the season.