From pecks to smooches: the five kisses that changed cinema forever
Whether you’re smooching, snogging or pecking, a classic kiss between lovers goes back to 2500 BCE, with humans quickly discovering that locking lips was quite the display of affection. When it comes to such physical romance being depicted in cinema, however, the humble kiss has a rockier history, even if it was one of the first things filmmakers decided to do upon the discovery of the moving image in the late 19th century.
While directors had their fun depicting kisses in front of the camera while cinema was still a liberal playground, this all changed in 1930 with the adoption of the Hays Code, a set of guidelines created by Will H. Hays, president of the MPAA, which told directors how to self-censor their own work. Included in this was a mandatory rule to avoid “inference of sex perversion”, which made filming erotic acts far harder.
Under this guidance, there could be no inclusion of homosexual relationships, as well as no reference towards or display of affection between interracial couples. Some filmmakers, especially those subversive ones who helped underground cinema thrive, ignored such rules, but it was only until 1968 that such rules were entirely abolished and replaced with the age-rating system that is well-recognised today.
Before the Hays Code, however, several kisses had already changed the course of cinema history, making the abolishment of oppressive rules and inevitability before they had even been introduced.
The kisses that changed cinema:
The first kiss in movie history
Many people claim that Thomas Edison was the first person to capture a movie smooch with his 1896 film The Kiss, but the fact is that Eadweard Muybridge had done the same nine years earlier in 1887 with a movie of the same name. The difference is that the kiss wasn’t actually captured on film, instead, Muybridge used individual photographs and presented them in quick succession using his zoopraxiscope.
Such was projected during lectures and gave the impression of a kiss in real-time motion. Muybridge’s film showed two women kissing, which in itself is pioneering, and created the movie as part of his studies that revolved around the detailed movements of animals and humans. Edison’s short film may indeed be the one which steals the limelight of history, but his movie could not have run had it now been for the foundations laid by Muybridge.
The first lesbian kiss in movie history
As we’ve discussed, the first lesbian kiss in cinema came in 1887 with the release of Eadweard Muybridge’s film The Kiss. Both the first ever projected kiss and the first ever projected kiss between two women, Muybridge’s movie was truly revolutionary. His zoopraxiscope process provided an early foundation for the creation of the movie camera by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, whom Thomas Edison employed.
Later, films like Tilly and the Fire Engines from 1911 would become more well-known for being one of the first lesbian kisses in movie history. Released decades after Muybridge’s short movie, Tilly and the Fire Engines showed two friends drive a fire engine through a fairground, causing havoc as they spray the firemen with water. Watch the pioneering piece of cinema, directed by Lewin Fitzhamon, below.
The first gay kiss in movie history
The first gay kiss wouldn’t come until 40 years after Muybridge’s historical smooch, appearing in William A. Wellman and Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast’s 1927 film Wings. The only silent film ever to win the Academy Award for ‘Best Picture’, Wings is influential for more reasons than just one, telling the story of two men from different social backgrounds who fall in love with the same woman during their time as pilots in WWI.
Although the plot points to a romance between the three characters, the undercurrent of Wings speaks to a romantic friendship that blossoms in the middle of two pilots. Such results in the pair sharing a loving kiss at the end of the film with Jack, played by Charles Rogers, whispering, “You know there is nothing in the world that means so much to me as your friendship,” before his friend replies, “I knew it – all the time.”
The first interracial kiss in movie history
The first interracial kiss in cinema came with the release of Island in the Sun in 1957. Directed by Robert Rossen, the film told the story of the politics, inequality and violence that ran riot on a fictitious British-ruled island called Santa Marta in the 1950s, with a cast that featured the likes of Joan Fontaine, James Mason, Joan Collins and Harry Belafonte.
Although the film is otherwise forgettable, there is one moment that stamps its authority on the world of cinema, with actors Fontaine and Belafonte sharing a kiss on screen. This romantic embrace between a white actor, Fontaine, and a Black star, Belafonte, departed from the norms of Hollywood and challenged the archaic values of the time. A protest against racial discrimination, Island in the Sun is arguably one of the most important movies of the 1950s.
The first Black kiss in movie history
The very first movie kiss between two Black people came in 1898 with the release of the silent film Something Good – Negro Kiss. Showing a couple kissing and holding hands, the film was thought to be lost to history until it was rediscovered in 2017, where critics and scholars of the medium have since sung its premises for presenting Black characters in a celebratory non-racist light, departing from the norms of the time.
Directed by William Selig, a vaudeville performer who was also a major player in the formation of American cinema, the creative went on to produce over 2000 movies and short films, propping up the foundations of the early industry. One of his most famous feature films came in 1936 with the release of The Drag-Net, starring Rod La Rocque, Marian Nixon and Betty Compson.