The Kiss

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YOUR RATING

May Irwin and John C. Rice in The Kiss (1896)

In a medium close-up shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give... Read allIn a medium close-up shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck.In a medium close-up shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

3.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Photos5

Trivia
A fifteen-second kiss by May Irwin and John C. Rice in the movie brought the first demand for film censorship.

Connections
Edited into Sixty Years of Seduction (1981)

User reviews22

Review

Featured review

6/10

A snippet from a famous Broadway play

There is not much to this film. It was made for Kinetoscope parlors with peep-show machines, and was probably rarely shown on a big screen (at least in the 1890s). It features May Irwin and John Rice in a short scene from their Broadway stage success THE WIDOW JONES.

The important thing about this film is the camera placement. Intead of seeing the actors full-length as if photographed on a stage, the photographer placed the camera near them so that we can clearly see their faces. The actual kiss is an innocent kiss as an old husband would kiss his wife. However, the closeness of the images disturbed many Victorian era people who felt a kiss was a private moment and should not be seen in public. While neither Irwin or Rice went on to make many more films, they were certainly some of the first celebrities to be immortalized on film. Looked at in this context, it is certainly an interesting little film.