Looking at my recent film HOT LIPS, I couldn’t help but think of our approach to hot kissing both on and off screen. There is no less or more kissing necessarily in that film than in any of my others, maybe it was just the large, full, red glittery lips adorning her jumper that made me dwell on kissing. Infact, we have some fabulous passionate hot kissing in one of my other published films LIFT KISS where passions roll between two lovers illicit encounter within a lift.
What is it about kissing that conjures up so much passion and interest.
“In the case of lovers a kiss is everything, that is the reason why a man stakes his all for a kiss.” So wrote Kristoffer Nyrop in his book The Kiss and its History.
For years poets and writers have long cherished writing verse and stories on the passion of the kiss. The meaning behind this show of physical, passionate behaviour which has stemmed as far back to over 3,500 years ago according to scholars. The action was embedded within Hinduism, Buddhism and the Jain religion. The word kiss itself has actually been derived from the word Kus from Northern India. Over years different styles of kissing have reflected different levels of passion and intimacy, with kissing another person’s lips becoming a common expression of affection in many cultures worldwide. The touching of our lips together offers a strong physical expression of affection or love between two people combining all our senses of touch, taste and smell.
“Soul meets soul on lover’s lips” quote by Percy Bysshe Shelly
“The kiss is a powerful expression of love and erotic emotions”, Nyrop said in his book The Kiss and its History, and wrote that the kiss of love is, “rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of infinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all other earthly joys in sublimity.”
Yet it was America that first brought kissing to our screens, through the silent movies with the first ever kiss featured in a film aptly named The Kiss in 1896. The kiss itself lasted all but 30 seconds but also caused a wave of disapproval with some viewers seeing the act as “disgusting”.
This however did not stop the wave of change and the power of film. Many stars became famous for their romantic portrayal of passion and the act of kissing. However this only produced a Production Code established back in 1934 to shortened and reduce excessive and lustful kissing and embraces. Within the code it stated that actors needed to keep their feet on the ground and had to be either sitting or standing. Yet the 1930’s and 40’s of the Golden Age of Hollywood, love was always the most represented theme in movies with 95% of films in the 1930’s featuring romance as the main plot line.
Some of our best remembered films of that time were deemed to have the most romantic kisses, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind and From Here to Eternity.