Best and Most Memorable
Film Kisses of All Time
in Cinematic History

Part 7



What makes a memorable screen kiss? Is it the passion, the circumstances, the buildup, the dialogue, the unpredictability, the awkwardness, the sexiness or eroticism, the cinematography, the unique quality...? Although any list of the best, most romantic, and most indelible kisses through film history is difficult to create, there are a number of kissing scenes in movies that are unforgettable and deserve special mention. Most of these scenes come from vintage, classic Hollywood films, rather than more recent films, and even stretch back to the scandalous The Kiss (1896)!

Other discussions of notable romantic or sexual scenes (with more examples of great kissing) may be found elsewhere in this site: Romance Films Genre, or Erotic/Sexual Films Genre, or the History of Sex in Cinema.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Best and Most Memorable Film Kisses - Part 7
(in chronological order by film title)
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
Film Title
Description of Kiss in Movie Scene
Example

Don't Look Now (1973)

Married Couple's Pre-Dinner Kissing/Loving

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As a prelude to a notorious love scene, a married and grieving couple visiting in Vienna, Laura Baxter (Julie Christie) and John (Donald Sutherland), were preparing for dinner by showering-bathing and relaxing languorously together; she stated: "You've got toothpaste all over your mouth" to which he replied: "Eat if off" - she responded with a kiss, and a playful stroking of his naked backside as they both stretched out on a bed; the explicit scene of their kissing and love-making was intercut with scenes of them dressing for a night out

Sleeper (1973)

A 'Nauseous' Kiss

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After futuristic rebels Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) and Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton) successfully kidnapped and killed The Leader's nose (by throwing it under a steamroller), Luna guessed correctly that Miles' jealous rant about rebel leader Erno (John Beck) was because he loved her: ("Of course I love you! What, this, this is what this is all about...") -- after Luna had unsuccessfully tried to convince Miles that science had proven long-lasting relationships were impossible, she amusedly asked: "Oh, I see. So, you don't believe in science, and, and you also don't believe that political systems work, and you don't believe in God....so then, What DO you believe in?" --Miles in a deadpan tone quickly replied: "Sex and death. Two things that come once in a lifetime -- but at least after death you're not nauseous" - they kissed passionately as the film ended

Chinatown (1974)

Pre-Coital Kiss

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Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) removed detective Jake Gittes' (Jack Nicholson) nose bandage, commenting: "God, it's a nasty cut", and then dabbed peroxide on the naked wound, while he noticed her eye coloring and she admitted: "It's a, it's a fl-flaw in the iris...it's a sort of birthmark"; after visually exposing their flaws or deficiencies, their faces were so intimately close to each other that they kissed; a post-coital scene showed them naked in bed and leisurely smoking cigarettes

The Godfather, Part II (1974)

'Kiss of Death'

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During a New Year's Eve celebration in Cuba that ushered in 1959 in a fancy ball in the Presidential Palace, amidst cheering, embracing, and confetti, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) whispered into traitorous brother Fredo's (John Cavale) ear as they grabbed each other: "There's a plane waiting for us to take us to Miami in an hour, all right? Don't make a big thing about it. (He forcefully grabbed him on both sides of the face and kissed him - Sicilian style. It was the kiss of death on his lips.) I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart"

Jaws (1975)

A Healing, Reassuring Kiss

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Rife with guilt over the death of Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees), a rather detached Sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) sat with his son Sean (Jay Mello) at the table and contemplated the events of the day. His young son mimicked his drinking gesture with his own glass of milk. The son also imitated the way his troubled father held his hands in deep thought and then covered his face. When Brody finally noticed that his son was copying his finger movements, he playfully made funny faces at him (the son responded with clawed hands and a shark-eating face). Martin finally said: "Give us a kiss." Sean asked: "Why", to which Martin murmured: "'Cause we need it". As mother and wife Ellen (Lorraine Gary) looked on, Sean gave his father a reassuring peck on the cheek

Rocky (1976)

First Kiss

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The misfit romance between Adrian (Talia Shire) and Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) began to blossom after a first kiss in one of the tenderest, most authentic and affecting scenes ever filmed. At his door, he begged for her not to go and intercepted her exit. And then he asked for her to remove her outdated glasses, noting that she had really "nice eyes." As a second favor, he asked Adrian to take off her wool cap, and then complimented her on how pretty she was: "I always knew you was pretty." Self-deprecating, Adrian replied: "Don't tease me," but Rocky was respectfully sincere about her budding beauty: "I ain't teasin' ya." He leaned forward, asking to kiss her: "I wanna kiss ya. You don't have to kiss me back if ya don't wanna. I wanna kiss you." After one soft kiss, she responded and lightly returned the kiss. After the long-delayed moment, the pay-off was magical and natural. They passionately gave themselves to each other with more kisses and an embrace as they collapsed in each other's arms to the floor next to the front door

Annie Hall (1977)

'Get It Over With' Kiss

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During a weekend date, Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) ended up accompanying aspiring singer Annie (Diane Keaton) to a Saturday nightclub audition for their first date - an awful debut experience as she timidly sang: "It Had To Be You"; walking along on the sidewalk afterwards to a deli (in a single, completely unbroken long shot), Alvy attempted to make her feel better, encouraging her as an older mentor; suddenly, he stopped and asked for a kiss so they wouldn't have to be tense all evening: "Yeah, why not? Because we're just going to go home later, right, and there's gonna be all that tension, you know, we never kissed before. And I'll never know when to make the right move or anything. So we'll kiss now and get it over with, and then we'll go eat. OK? We'll digest our food better"

Manhattan (1979)

"What Are You Doing?" Kiss

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After seeing a W. C. Fields film together, Isaac Davis (Woody Allen) and Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton) went back to her place, where he laughingly complained about the lack of food in her refrigerator: ("Corned beef should not be blue!"). He then told her to come over to him - and gave her a long, passionate kiss; she then asked quizzically: "What are you doing?" to which he responded: "What am I doing, you have to ask what I'm doing?!" He then admitted that it was something he had wanted to do for the longest time since meeting her. She said she thought he wanted to kiss her at the Hayden Planetarium. He replied: "Yeah, I did...you were so sexy, you know, in the rain, I had a mad impulse to throw you down on the lunar surface and commit interstellar perversion with you"

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Unlikely and Interrupted Kiss

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Han Solo (Harrison Ford) passionately kissed Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), while she helped him to repair the Millenium Falcon on the asteroid, and almost made her faint; although indignant, she couldn't find the words to express herself; earlier in the film, she had spitefully told him: "I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee", and had considered him to be a "scoundrel", but he claimed he was a "nice man"; the kissing scene ended quickly and humorously when they were suddenly interrupted by C3PO, who cheerfully told Han about the repairs he had made to the ship

The Shining (1980)

Shocking Corpse Kiss

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When investigating Room 237 in the Overlook Hotel, half-crazed caretaker Jack (Jack Nicholson) pushed open the half-closed bathroom door of the mysterious, green and orange room, where he saw a young, totally-nude female figure (Lia Beldam) bathing - she rose, and slowly stepped from the tub and approached; Jack lustfully leered back at her and was sexually seduced by the apparition; when she stopped in the middle of the room, he started toward her - she seductively moved her hands up over his chest and around his neck; Jack embraced and kissed the illusory, beautiful bather - but when he looked over her shoulder at their embrace in the mirror behind her, he saw that her age had accelerated; she was metamorphisized into a demonic, necrophiliac lover - a pulsating, partially-decomposed corpse - a wrinkled, thick-skinned old hag (Billie Gibson)!


On Golden Pond (1981)

'Suck Face' Kiss

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This was a heartwarming film about an aging couple at their summer place -- retired college professor and avid fisherman Norman Thayer, Jr. (Henry Fonda) had suffered a mild heart attack, which for the first time made his wife Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) realize their mortality. He recovered - and asked Ethel, using slang he had learned from 13 year-old Billy (Doug McKeon): ''Wanna dance or would you rather just suck face?'' In a long shot, they leaned in to kiss, but the camera panned away

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Kissing It Where It Doesn't Hurt

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As passengers on Mr. Katanga's (George Harris) steamboat with the Ark of the Covenant in its cargo hold, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) nursed a badly wounded Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), who complained of pain when she tried to apply ointment - she retorted: "Well, G-ddamnit, where doesn't it hurt?" Indy told her that the only place it didn't hurt on his body was his left elbow. She kissed it for him and he prompted her to continue kissing him - on his forehead, his right eye and finally, a long passionate kiss on his lips - but he passed out as Marion pondered: "We never seem to get a break, do we?"



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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.