Lips, camera, action! - The best and worst screen smooches

The kiss is the iconic Hollywood moment, far more significant than mere sex. Kaleem Aftab chooses 12 osculatory encounters that scorched the screen – or not

Friday, March 28, 2008

The success of a movie can hinge on the moment when star-crossed lovers or sparring protagonists finally connect. Equally, a smacker can take on a significance that goes beyond the frame; when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (inset right) kiss in Mr and Mrs Smith, you see the chemistry that put paid to his marriage to Jennifer Aniston. Cinema is the proof that Dooley Wilson got it wrong when he sang: "A kiss is just a kiss."

Kisses mean different things at different times, and the way a couple embrace is key when audiences decide whether they feel a romance is believable. In Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts's refusal to kiss her customers on the mouth was proof that a kiss has more significance than sex: the screen kiss is the language of desire.

The first screen kiss caused a furore in 1896, when it was the focus of Thomas Edison's movie called, er, The Kiss. The short film saw May Irvin and John Rice bring to Edison's moving camera the lingering kiss they'd performed nightly in the Broadway stage play The Widow Jones. It brought demands for censorship, but the public loved it and it was the most popular film made that year by Edison. Since then, film-makers have competed to produce the longest screen kiss – You're In the Army Now (1941), Notorious (1946), Andy Warhol's Kiss (1963) and Kids in America (2005) all staked a claim to the title. Don Juan (1926) claims to have the most kisses, with actor John Barrymore racking up 191 smackers.

There's a power in the screen kiss that ensures the image stays with us. My first cinematic memory is seeing Marilyn Monroe woo Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot. Ever since, I can't help but judge films on the quality of the kiss. And two upcoming films are memorable because of the way they deal with the lip action: Irina Palm shows how a kiss can make you squirm, while In Search of a Midnight Kiss features a character spending practically the whole movie hankering after a smooch.

1. THE FORBIDDEN KISS

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Brokeback Mountain'

The kiss that has been topping recent polls as the best screen smacker of all time is the second big encounter in the film, when Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) arrives at the home of Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) some time after their first fumble in a tent on an isolated Wyoming mountain. Ennis thinks he's being clever by pushing Jack around so that they can end up in a spot that's out of sight of his wife Alma (Michelle Williams) and they lock tongues, arms and legs as if their lives depended on it. Unfortunately, Alma can still see them out of the window. This forbidden kiss has the extra spice of breaking two rules – it is both a gay kiss, and an extramarital one.

Watch the kiss from 'Brokeback Mountain'

2. THE ANIMATED KISS

'Lady and the Tramp'

The kiss between the cocker spaniel Lady and the mongrel Tramp when eating alfresco at an Italian restaurant has been copied many times, most notably in the spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux. Serenaded by a waiter singing the love song "Belle Notte", the dogs start eating from opposite ends of a strand of spaghetti. When they meet in the middle, they have a little kiss and Tramp offers Lady the last meatball on the plate. Animation is a great source of memorable screen kisses, from Snow White kissing the seven dwarfs on their way to work, with Dopey coming back for more, through to Howard the Duck being seen smooching in silhouette.

Watch the kiss from 'Lady and the Tramp'

3. THE WORST SCREEN KISS

Marianne Faithfull and Miki Manojlovic in 'Irina Palm'

The action has been building up to the moment that self-proclaimed "middle-aged frump" Maggie, aka Irina Palm, kisses her employer Miki. Building up to a kiss is a classic cinema staple – Lost in Translation, featuring Bill Murray's memorable moment with Scarlett Johansson, is a perfect example – but in Irina Palm the moment has all the sexual allure of cleaning the toilet. When Miki sees Maggie across the room, he rushes at her with the ferocity of a prize-fighter hearing the starting bell but, rather than throwing a punch, he bends down to kiss her with all the enthusiasm of a child forced to kiss his grandmother, his arms flapping uselessly by his sides. Maggie, who has been flirting constantly with Miki, receives the offering like a shop-window dummy, giving nothing back in return. Even the camera seems offended by this woeful attempt at affection, and the screen quickly blacks out before the viewer has time to reach for a bucket. It makes even the embraces of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's Casino, and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in Gigli look charged with emotion.

4. THE AGGRESSIVE KISS

Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in 'Gone With the Wind'

The most memorable screen kisses are not always two-way affairs. When Scarlett rebuffs Rhett at the bottom of the stairs, the angry fellow grabs her and kisses her ferociously. He then sweeps her off her feet and carries her up the stairs, two at a time, towards the bedroom, while she screams for him to stop. This V C scene is echoed in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie when Sean Connery decides he's had enough of Tippi Hedren's refusal to be touched, and in On the Waterfront, when Marlon Brando won't let a door keep him from a protesting Eva Marie Saint. Of course, the aggressor's role isn't always taken by the man, as Marilyn Monroe demonstrates by refusing to take no for an answer when on a yacht with Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot.

Watch the kiss from 'Gone With the Wind'

5. THE SHOCKING KISS

Jack Nicholson and Lia Beldam/Billie Gibson in 'The Shining'

When Jack Torrance (Nicholson) catches sight of the beautiful and naked Lia Beldam awaiting him in room 237, it's already clear to the viewer that all is not what it seems. Yet it still comes as a shock when the beauty rises from the bath and stands waiting for Jack to kiss her. As they embrace, Jack looks over her shoulder into a mirror – and sees, in the reflection, the beautiful girl age into a partially decomposed corpse (Billie Gibson). While Stanley Kubrick shocks here in a horrifying way, Bernardo Bertolucci shocks by being gross in his ode to 1968, The Dreamers: after Isabelle (Eva Green) loses her virginity, blood is taken from her thighs by her lover Matthew (Michael Pitt), who then smears it on her face and starts kissing her while her twin brother (Louis Garrel) watches on gleefully.

6. THE EXCRUCIATING KISS

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery in 'Entrapment'

There is nothing worse than seeing two characters who shouldn't even be sharing the same planet kiss – although it can work when it's an unseemly or villainous character kissing someone we champion. Scorsese made great use of this fact when he remade Cape Fear. The only clear improvement in his 1991 version on the original J Lee Thompson film is the scene in which Robert De Niro kisses the naive – and way too young – Juliette Lewis.

Age gaps really help when it comes to excruciating kisses on screen. In Me and You and Everyone We Know, a female gallery-owner kisses an eight-year-old boy she has met online, but the moment is too obviously trying to break taboos for it to become truly excruciating. That prize surely goes to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery for their kiss in Entrapment. I find it difficult to describe, as I had to cover my eyes when Zeta-Jones's insurance investigator kisses the art-thief Connery.

Not that younger actresses kissing older actors is necessarily a turn-off – check out Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris – but I can't say that I'm looking forward to seeing 21-year-old Mary-Kate Olsen kiss 64-year-old Sir Ben Kingsley in The Wackness, to be released this summer.

7. THE FIRST KISS

Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher in 'The Empire Strikes Back'

The first kiss is traditionally the most important one, and there is none more satisfying than the kiss between Han Solo and Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back. The sense of anticipation had been building, with Leia having already told Solo that she'd "just as soon kiss a wookie". Contrast their smooch with Harry Potter's hugely anticipated first kiss, which got everything wrong. Actors Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung apparently took 30 takes to get the kiss in the can in The Order of the Phoenix, but practice did not make perfect in this case – the resulting lip-lock is awkward and distinctly unmagical.

Watch the kiss from 'The Empire Strikes Back'

8. THE BEST KISS

James Stewart and Grace Kelly in 'Rear Window'

Alfred Hitchcock liked a screen kiss more than anyone. His films could make up their own Top 10 on the art of kissing on-screen. From the Hays Code-busting kiss in Notorious and on through the numerous clinches in Vertigo and North by Northwest, there was always something to admire about the effort the British director put into getting these magical moments exactly right.

None, though, ever surpassed the entry of Grace Kelly in Rear Window. James Stewart is dozing as the sun sets over the courtyard to the rear of his apartment. A shadow moves slowly across his face, morphing into a close-up of Kelly as she bends down and gives him a tender kiss. Stewart wakes up to see the stunning vision before him. The camera work is supreme in its execution and framing.

Watch the kiss from 'Rear Window'

9. A KISS BEFORE DYING

Al Pacino and John Cazale in 'The Godfather: Part II'

The notorious kiss of death has provided some of the greatest moments in cinema. Louise Brooks, despite having the greatest haircut in cinema history, was knifed by Jack the Ripper (Gustav Diessl) during an erotic embrace in Soho in the 1929 German classic Pandora's Box. Directors have had much fun juxtaposing the last drawing of breath with a kiss, although it doesn't have to be sinister: witness Arthur Hiller's Love Story, when Ali MacGraw dies in Ryan O'Neal's arms. The fun directors have with the deadly kiss can be seen in the 1946 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice when, after Lana Turner has a snog in the car, she steps out and is run over by oncoming traffic.

But the quintessential kiss of death takes place in The Godfather: Part II. Don Michael Corleone (Pacino) has sussed out that the traitor is his brother Fredo (Cazale). Michael walks up to his brother and clasps his hands around his neck before forcefully kissing him on the mouth and saying: "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart, you broke my heart."

Watch the kiss from 'The Godfather: Part II'

10. THE BEST CHARACTER IN NEED OF A KISS

Scoot McNairy in 'In Search of a Midnight Kiss'

It's New Year's Eve and Wilson (McNairy) is still getting to grips with being single and living in Los Angeles. He's determined to sit at home and waste the evening when he's persuaded to go online and find himself a date, as he can't let New Year pass without the essential midnight kiss. Wilson is the stand-out candidate in this category because the girl he meets, Vivian (Sara Simmonds), would try the patience of a saint. She models herself on Jean Seberg in Breathless but has none of the style or grace. But Wilson, who is more needy than any Eighties high school movie teen – including Duckie in Pretty In Pink – sticks with it.

11. THE BEST BACKDROP

Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in 'From Here to Eternity'

Sometimes, a kiss is all about location, location, location. Hollywood has always pushed the notion that the top of the Empire State Building is the place for a smooch. Failing that, it's kissing in the rain (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Notebook). However, a sandy Hawaiian beach with waves lapping over Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and the adulterous Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) provides the greatest backdrop to any celluloid kiss. The beauty of the couple adds to the aesthetic of this outstanding moment; this kiss, more than anything else in the film, ensures the classic status of From Here to Eternity. Other mesmerising backdrops include the fireworks that can be seen from the hotel room as Grace Kelly seduces Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, and the transforming background in FW Murnau's Sunrise, when George O'Brien starts to kiss his wife (played by Janet Gaynor) – they're in a busy city street, but as they kiss the background morphs into a country field replete with blooming flowers.

Watch the kiss from 'From Here to Eternity'

12. THE BEST DIALOGUE DURING A KISS

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in 'To Have and Have Not'

William Faulkner and Jules Furthman adapted Ernest Hemingway's novel for this 1944 film, which was directed by Howard Hawks. The 19-year-old Lauren Bacall and 44-year-old Humphrey Bogart's romance spilled off screen and it was easy to see why, given the fireworks that exploded every time the pair shared the frame. After Slim (Bacall) chastises Steve (Bogart) with the line: "It's even better with your help!" after their first, less than satisfying, kiss, she follows up by trying to elicit some more passion from her man with the immortal line: "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." Bogart was the master when it came to receiving great lines from his leading ladies during a clinch. In Casablanca, Ingrid Bergman beseeched him to "Kiss me, kiss me as if it were the last time," (it was the last time), and in The Big Sleep Bacall simply tells him: "I'd like that. I'd like more." Again, she seemed more satisfied with his second kiss rather than his first.

'Irina Palm' opens on 30 May; 'In Search of a Midnight Kiss' opens on 13 June