The Best Kissing Scenes: The Classics, Part 2

One surprise the Movie List Blogster discovered watching so much kissing lately is how few, as a matter of fact, none, of these scenes come from big-name, modern directors -- the likes of Scorsese, Spielberg, Robert Altman, and Ridley Scott aren't to be found. But classic directors? Hawks, Ford, Fred Zinnemann have filmed iconic kisses, scenes that stay in our collective memory Accident? By design? A trend of modern psychology? What do you think?
Then there's the undisputed leader, with more scenes than any other director:
HITCHCOCK
Master of Suspense -- Master of Romance

                                             
 NOTORIOUS  

 

The always moving, ever turning continuous close-up of Cary Grant

and Ingrid Bergman going from balcony to bedroom in kiss after 

kiss, after extended kiss.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST

And again. The turning, ever moving, continuous close-up of Cary and Eva Marie Saint in a cramped train compartment. Of course Hitchcock cuts to a train going through a tunnel.

REAR WINDOW

The full-face, silent, slow motion "clinch." Grace Kelly moves ever closer to a reclining, sleepy, broken legged James Stewart. It's not a dream, it just feels to good to be true.

TO CATCH A THIEF                 

Grant and Kelly -- a grown-up fairy tale of the rich and beautiful. High price jewels, gorgeous gowns, an exquisite Riviera hotel room with a balcony over looking the sea. And that kiss under the fireworks. That backdrop of explosions as Freudian-symbol hilarity stick this scene in your memory.

JOHN FORD

THE QUIET MAN

Check out the Ford at Fox DVD collection -- particularly the box set of Silent Epics. It's  a testament to the artistic power of the silents. The lasting influence of those images is never more evident than in this wind-blown, passion-lock between John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

HOWARD HAWKS

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

Hawks had a bet with Ernest Hemingway(or so the story goes) that he could take the writer's worst book and make it into a good movie. Hemingway chose this novel and one of the most seductive and romantic moments in movies was born.

Charter-boat captain Humphrey Bogart and nightclub singer Lauren Bacall in a Martinque hotel during WWII. A kiss, and another and kiss again, as if testing each other out. "It's even better when you help," she tells him. Leaving, she says what every man wants to hear. "You don't have to say anything, don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you Steve? Just put your lips together and blow."

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ABOUT ME

DOUG HENNESSY

I'm a life-long lover of all things cinema. I'm a film writer and a regular organizer of screenings and discussions over the past many years. So I figured what's better in a movie blog, what's more eye catching, and smart,than a stimulating series of lists. As few things in life are more personal and fervent than loving or hating a movie, lists ratchet up those irresistible cinephile debates from passionate discussion to full scale arguing. And for The Movie List Blogster, nothing's more fun than arguing about movies.

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