Thomas Edison helped popularize the lightbulb and the phonograph, but cinephiles can also thank him for the first on-camera kiss. The historic smooch came at Edison’s New Jersey studio in 1896, when stage actors May Irwin and John Rice reenacted a scene from a play for the 23-second short, “The Kiss.” Despite the scandal it generated, Edison remade it four years later with less-plump actors.
Once cinema puckered up, there was no stopping onscreen kisses. Granted, the prigs of Hollywood’s Production Code generally insisted that no movie kiss last more than three seconds. Director Alfred Hitchcock, who specialized in testing the censors, cleverly circumvented the rule with Notorious in 1946. Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman kiss on and off for roughly two and a half minutes, with no individual peck exceeding three seconds and nuzzling in between. Hitchcock kept the camera close enough to almost smell what the actors had for lunch that day in the RKO studio commissary.
I reluctantly exclude the kiss montage that concludes director Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988). In this comedy-drama, a movie projectionist in a small Italian village bequeaths to his protégé a reel of spliced-together footage—the decades-long culmination of onscreen intimacy that had been censored by the local priest. The scene is lovely, but because it’s a montage of other films, it’s ineligible for this most important of lists. As the Production Code knew, rules are rules.
Below are my selections for the 20 most memorable kisses—commemorated by haiku.
20. “Steve” and “Slim” (Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) in To Have and Have Not (1944, dir. Howard Hawks)
Slim likes what she sees.
“You know how to whistle, Steve?”
Put lips together.
19. John and Frances (Cary Grant and Grace Kelly) in To Catch a Thief (1955, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Fireworks light outside.
Fireworks ignite on the couch.
A jewel thief, caught.
18. Tashi, Art, and Patrick (Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor) in Challengers (2024, dir. Luca Guadagnino)
Three love or two love?
In serving up a threesome,
Zendaya pulls out.
17. Cry-Baby and Allison (Johnny Depp and Amy Locane) in Cry-Baby (1990, dir. John Waters)
Tonsillectomy
Or Cry-Baby make-out time?
They both look the same.
16. Kathryn and Cecile (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair) in Cruel Intentions (1999, dir. Roger Kumble)
Practicing French kiss,
Open mouthed, their tongues dancing.
Homework gets steamy.
15. Noah and Allie (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) in The Notebook (2004, dir. Nick Cassavetes)
Ryan and Rachel
Waterlogged and kissy-faced,
Smooching in the rain.
14. Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Mary Jane (Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst) in Spider-Man (2002, dir. Sam Raimi)
Spidey, upside-down,
Friendly neighborhood kissing,
Maskless mouth: pucker.
13. Joe and Princess Ann (Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn) in Roman Holiday (1953, dir. William Wyler)
Vespa, gelato—
A princess has her fun but
Heavy is the crown.
12. Michael and Fredo (Al Pacino and John Cazale) in The Godfather Part II (1974, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
“I know it was you.”
Fredo sleeps with the fishes
By the movie’s end.
11. George and Mary (James Stewart and Donna Reed) in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, dir. Frank Capra)
Sam is on the phone
But George has lassoed Mary—
A wonderful kiss.
10. Robbie and Cecilia (James McAvoy and Keira Knightley) in Atonement (2007, dir. Joe Wright)
Against the bookcase
But there will be hell to pay.
Younger sister sees.
9. Chiron and Kevin (Ashton Sanders and Jharrel Jerome) in Moonlight (2016, dir. Barry Jenkins)
A kiss on the beach,
Kevin’s longing is answered—
But nothing changes.
9 Felicitas and Leo (Greta Garbo and John Gilbert) in Flesh and the Devil (1926, dir. Clarence Brown)
Garbo and Gilbert
Canoodling on screen and off,
A silent lip-lock.
7. Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson (Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft) in The Graduate (1967, dir. Mike Nichols)
Benjamin moves in.
Let the lady finish up
Her cigarette first.
6. Harry and Sally (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) in When Harry Met Sally… (1989, dir. Rob Reiner)
Countdown to midnight,
Harry professes his love.
Let’s have what they have.
5. Jack and Ennis (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) in Brokeback Mountain (2005, dir. Ang Lee)
Forbidden lovers,
A reunion seen by wife.
“I just can’t quit you.”
4. Karen (Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr) in From Here to Eternity (1953, dir. Fred Zinnemann)
Crashing surf, gorgeous
Lovers entwined on the beach.
Swimsuits get sandy.
3. Holly Golightly and Paul (Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard) in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961, dir. Blake Edwards)
Cat in from the rain,
Holly finally comes home.
One kiss heals two strays.
2. Scottie and Judy (James Stewart and Kim Novak) in Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Judy? Madeline?
Carlotta Valdez? Who knows?
Lips taste just the same.
1. Devlin and Alicia (Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman) in Notorious (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
It’s nuzzle, nuzzle
Necking well past two minutes,
Pre-spying foreplay.
Honorable mention: Amélie and Nino (Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz). Amélie (2001, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet), Belle and the Beast (voices of Paige O’Hara and Robby Benson) in Beauty and the Beast (1991, dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise), Bridget and Mark (Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth) in Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001, dir. Sharon Maguire), Rick and Ilsa (Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman) in Casablanca (1942, dir. Michael Curtiz), Baby and Johnny (Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze) in Dirty Dancing (1987, dir. Emile Ardolino), Han and Princess Leia (Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher) in The Empire Strikes Back (1980, dir. Irvin Kershner), Sam and Molly (Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore) in Ghost (1990, dir. Jerry Zucker), Rhett and Scarlett (Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh) in Gone with the Wind (1939, dir. Victor Fleming), Lady and Tramp (voices of Barbara Luddy and Larry Roberts) in Lady and the Tramp (1955, dir. Hamilton Luske and Clyde Geronimi), Jean and Hopsie (Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda) in The Lady Eve (1941, dir. Preston Sturges), Quincy and Monica (Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan) in Love & Basketball (2000, dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood), Loretta and Ronny (Cher and Nicolas Cage) in Moonstruck (1987, dir. Norman Jewison), Zack and Paula (Richard Gere and Debra Winger) in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982, dir. Taylor Hackford), Westley and Princess Buttercup (Cary Elwes and Robin Wright) in The Princess Bride (1987, dir. Rob Reiner), Barry and Lena (Adam Sandler and Emily Watson) in Punch-Drunk Love (2002, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson), Sean and Mary Kate (John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara) in The Quiet Man (1952, dir. John Ford), Romeo and Juliet (Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) in Romeo + Juliet (1996, dir. Baz Luhrmann), Samantha and Jake (Molly Ringwald and Michael Schoeffling) in Sixteen Candles (1984, dir. John Hughes), Kat and Patrick (Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger) in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999, dir. Gil Junger), Rose and Jack (Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio) in Titanic (1997, dir. James Cameron)
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach 
5 responses to “The 20 best kiss scenes in film”
[…] Mike Nichols’ watershed comedy-drama underscores that a meaningful coming of age isn’t limited to teenagers and small children. Dustin Hoffman became an overnight sensation as Benjamin Braddock, fresh out of college but pissed at the world and adrift—literally and metaphorically—in the swimming pool of his parents’ comfortable Los Angeles home. Cue the alluring Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the coolly contemptuous wife of his father’s business partner. “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me,” Benjamin intones in one of the picture’s more famous lines. “Aren’t you?” The Graduate quickly became a seminal document for a generation of disaffected youth determined not to become their parents. There are many reasons to adore it, from Buck Henry’s witty script to the lovely Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack to its wonderfully ambiguous ending. The leads are extraordinary. Nichols cast the then-unknown Hoffman because he fit the director’s vision of Benjamin as more nervous and insecure than the WASPy, athletic type described in the novella on which the film is based. Robert Redford, who had worked with Nichols in Barefoot in the Park on Broadway, lobbied hard for the role. He lost out after Nichols asked the ridiculously handsome actor how he handled being rejected by a woman. Redford didn’t understand the concept.(See more in The 20 best needle drops in film and The 20 best kiss scenes in film.) […]
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[…] Nick Cassavetes’ workmanlike adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 bestseller is shamelessly manipulative and sentimental. Its understanding of dementia is dubious at best. There isn’t a trope of the genre it can resist. But dammit, The Notebook nails everything it sets out to do. We begin in a nursing home, where a kindly old man reads to an old woman with dementia from a notebook that details a 1940s love story between Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams). Noah is a penniless blue-collar guy; Allie is from a wealthy family. She initially rebuffs his advances, but his persistence (stalking, we might call it today) eventually wins her over. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where this tale is going, but honestly, The Notebook is too sweetly old-fashioned and committed to big movie passion to resist. Gosling and McAdams are beautiful, magnetic, and have real chemistry together. James Garner and Gena Rowlands (the director’s mother) are appropriately heartbreaking. You’ll weep, and maybe you’ll hate yourself a tiny bit for being such a pushover.(See more in The 20 best kiss scenes in film.) […]
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[…] This ranking does not weigh in on the ongoing debate among cinephiles over which Godfather story is better. Both I and II are masterpieces (and III, for that matter, is better than its reputation). But as a full-throated gangster saga reflecting the rise of organized crime in the 1950s and early ‘60s, The Godfather Part II is superior. The screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo examines the pivotal roles of Las Vegas and pre-Castro Cuba in cementing the Mafia’s dominance in American crime as well as the impact of congressional investigations (led in real life by Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver) into mob leaders. Lee Strasberg is particularly terrific as Hyman Roth, a thinly veiled version of Meyer Lansky, among the architects of modern-day organized crime. Part II is both sequel and prequel. Robert De Niro portrays Vito Corleone as a young immigrant in the Little Italy of early 20th century New York, a part for which the actor learned Sicilian. A key cast change is the addition of Michael V. Gazzo as Corleone family capo Frankie “Five Angels” Pentangeli. Essentially, the character replaces Part I’s Clemenza, who disappeared from the script after actor Richard Castellano demanded a bigger salary and that his wife write all his dialogue. Coppola wasn’t messing around with compromises this time around. Unlike with the first film, Paramount now ceded him complete control. Building on its predecessor, The Godfather Part II lays bare the corrupting of American institutions, from business to government and beyond. Although it cleaned up at the Academy Awards with six wins, including Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (De Niro), not all critics were smitten. The New York Times’ Vincent Canby groused that the most notable thing about Coppola’s movie was that “it recalls how much better his original film was.” C’est la vie—I’m not sure what the Sicilian translation is.(See more in The 20 best kiss scenes in film.) […]
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[…] special resonance. In Vertigo, the self is alarmingly pliable—the putty of obsession.(See more in The 20 best kiss scenes in film and The 10 best films about […]
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[…] This lovely romcom owes its existence in part to the success of another school-centric movie on this list. Inspired by how Clueless updated Jane Austen’s Emma, screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith decided a wry reworking of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew was in order. 10 Things I Hate About You served up an irresistibly sweet-natured vision of high school. It is a place for playful crushes, even when the crushees are as seemingly star-crossed as perpetually angry Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) and Australian stud Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger). Young Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Larisa Oleynik are fine in supporting roles, but the picture squarely belongs to Stiles and Ledger, both of whom were actually of high school age when they were cast––not a common phenomenon for teen flicks. Their charisma and chemistry get a solid A.(See more in The 20 best kiss scenes in film.) […]
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