To read the feature From passion to power plays, flirting to fealty - the many meanings of the kiss, go here.
The Graduate (1967)
There’s not a lot of romance or passion in this scene when the callow Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has his first tryst with the worldly Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft) but the eager clumsy kiss he initiates which leaves Mrs Robinson underwhelmed and exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke makes it one of the funniest smooches in big-screen history.
Spider-Man (2002)
The love story between Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane “MJ” Watson helped give this superhero film a heartfelt character drama beneath the high-flying action. And this kiss, with MJ peeling back an inverted Spidey’s mask just enough for her lips to find his, was a moment that rose above genre to join those snogging-in-the-rain classics.
Before Sunrise (1995)
Richard Linklater’s film of the brief encounter between American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Frenchwoman Céline (Julie Delpy) in Vienna became a generational romantic trilogy with 2004’s Before Sunset and 2013’s Before Midnight. The kiss then hug they share on the landmark Wiener Riesenrad ferris wheel is a sweet moment where the film takes a breath from the pair’s lengthy conversation.
Casablanca (1942)
There are two swoon-inducing kisses in the Hollywood classic between nightclub owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and his former lover Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman). The first is a flashback to Paris with the Nazis fast approaching and Ilsa entreats Rick: “Kiss me … kiss me as if it were the last time” Which he does. The second is after they’ve met in Vichy-ruled Casablanca, where they kiss again, just as despondently.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The second in Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia saga follows Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) as he grows increasingly ruthless. When he realises his older brother Fredo (John Cazale) has betrayed him after an assassination attempt by a rival mob family, he kisses him, saying: “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.” It’s the kiss of death.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
The oddball charmer adapted from a Truman Capote novelette had a passionate, kissing-in-the-rain happy ending with Audrey Hepburn’s impulsive, in-need-of-rescuing New York socialite Holly Golightly finally succumbing to Paul (George Peppard), the writer who had fallen for her. The only Hollywood classic kiss to involve a participant holding a large ginger cat.
From Here to Eternity (1953)
As risqué and Freudian as intimate encounters got in mainstream Hollywood fare of the era, the famous roll in the Hawaiian surf risked a fair bit of sand in the togs for its couple. Burt Lancaster played a US Army sergeant having an affair with an officer’s wife (Deborah Kerr). “I never knew it could be like this,” gasped Kerr after the pair headed for dry land. “No one ever kissed me the way you do.”
The Age of Innocence (1993)
He kissed her on the neck. He kissed her on the lips. He kissed her on the shoe. On a carriage ride, he kissed her on the wrist after unbuttoning her glove. Such was the oscular explorations of Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland Archer in his thwarted love for Michelle Pfeiffer’s Countless Ellen Olenska in Martin Scorsese’s elegant adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel.
The Princess Bride (1987)
Rob Reiner’s enduring affectionate spoof of fantasy adventures was delivered as a bedtime story. So, when it came to the happily-ever-after kiss between Westley (Cary Elwes) and his beloved Buttercup (Robin Wright), it was described thus: “Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that have been rated the most passionate, most pure. This one left them all behind.”
Room with a View (1985)
The first of three Merchant Ivory adaptations of EM Forster’s novels had the greatest kiss in the producers’ many frock films. Having just met, Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch has wobbled across a poppy field to find Julian Sands’ George Emerson admiring the view. He turns to see her, and as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sings Puccini in the background, he strides to her and pulls her in for a kiss that leaves her even wobblier. It won’t be their last pash, or last visit to Italy.