35 thoughts on “Top Five Kisses in Historical Costume Movies

  1. but… but… NORTH & SOUTH!! Okay, you only picked 5, I get it. But I have to put this one out there. Richard Armitage/Mr. Thornton has spent 99.5% of the film scowling, smoldering, and brooding and when he finally smiles so sweetly at Miss Hale and she can clearly resist no longer, and then he kisses her at the train station….it kills me every time.
    I guess I’m just a sucker for the dark brooding type.
    Okay, calming down now. And I do love Captain Wentworth and Anne’s first kiss scene.

    1. My enjoyment of that scene is tempered by the fact that he’s taken off half his clothes. I get that they are trying to communicate to the audience that his sojourn in Helstone has loosened him up, but it’s about as subtle as the rock to the head Margaret endures for him….

      Although Richard Armitage gets all the stars for turning staring out a window into the sexiest thing imaginable.

      1. I love that scene too though I have to suspend disbelief because of the historical inaccuracy. People didn’t snog at railway stations in the 19c. I was really thrown by that scene when I first watched the series and wish they had kept to the ending in the book.

  2. I ran across the following quote from Hugh Grant some time back: he was asked who was the best kisser of all his co-stars, and he eagerly replied, “James Wilby. The man has a tongue like a conger eel.”

    I haven’t seen it again since reading that assessment to verify, but strangely, I don’t remember a Hugh Grant/James Wilby kiss in “Maurice”.

  3. So glad Outlander made it on to the list! I also love, love, love the kiss at the wedding that opens the episode, which Jamie says afterwards made him realize that maybe Claire wasn’t so sad to be marrying him after all…

    You should also do a list of worse movie kisses of all time. The 2007 Persuasion would be at the top of my list. Don’t believe me? Watch and wait for the weird guppy mouth motion. Such a shame, too, because I love the rest of the movie, even if Sally Hawkins’s hair styling leaves a lot to be desired. (Plenty of bobby pins, but also more hair gel than a 90s boy band)

  4. “Room with a View” – absolutely! And, if you did a “worst kisser” list, DDL would make that as well, also for “Room with a View” – that mis-kiss on Lucy – all we needed to know about who she will end up with!

    1. Haha! That kiss is so perfectly awkward. His pince-nez falling off… And Lucy’s SO excited in the lead-up, and you can tell she’s thinking, “Oh, kissing! I remember that!” But no, Lucy, that was just George!

  5. Outlander, Room With a View, and Age of Innocence are on my list too. Other films are Princess Bride, Maurice, Wings of the Dove and Frank Langella’s Dracula.

    1. Princess Bride not only has one of the great kisses in film, but it has Peter Falk telling us how great a kiss it is.

      1. Yes, he reads ‘…most chaste, most passionate kiss…’ Love that each time I see film. ‘Have fun storming the castle, boys’

  6. Glad Last of the Mohicans is in there — that’s a HOT kiss.

    Umm… mine:
    1) Emma (Paltrow / Northam — kissing under that enormous tree, the cute little smile right before he goes for the lips, just flutters my poor little heart)
    2) North & South (yup… YUP)
    3) Jane Eyre (the miniseries version, and particularly all the highly inappropriate, very out of book character, snogging going on in that bedroom before she tells him to get lost *fans self*)
    4) Dracula (Okay, okay, I know the Frank Langella ’79 movie is total CHEESE, but that kissing / ear nibbling sequence in the garden gets me every time)

    I feel like The Princess Bride’s ending kiss deserves an honorable mention…

    (Also, on a different note — “Doctor Thorne” is coming to Amazon Prime next week. Victorian drama. Poofy skirts. Hair ribbons. Grouchy drunks. Flirty looks. Anthony Trollope adaptation. Quite cheeky and delightful. Dunno if it’s your cup of tea, but I can’t wait to watch it again.)

  7. I have to agree with all the previous mentions of the North & South kiss. The whole scene is just all so lovely, the build up and the score and the way it was shot. I love that it conveys such a depth of emotion while still being quite innocent.

    1. Clearly I need to brush up on North & South! I watched it years ago and loved it, but it’s been too long that my memory of any specifics are fuzzy.

  8. I’m so glad you included Persuasion, and I agree wholeheartedly with A Room with a View for the #1 spot. Might I also mention the almost-kiss in Pride and Prejudice between the lovely Matthew Macfadyen and Kiera Knightley? And I believe the top spot needs to be shared with Helena Bonham Carter (again!) and Linus Roache in The Wings of the Dove. The first three minutes of that film are as sexy as it gets. Later, there’s another tryst in the rain, but the train/elevator scene is intense.

  9. When I think movie kisses I think of Gone With the Wind every time. Specifically the one where she’s in mourning and Rhett comes to visit her. Oh! and Titanic for sure.

  10. Somewhere in Time is such a wonderful romantic movie. Christopher Reeve was so handsome, sexy and his character seemed out of place in the modern era. Must watch again.

  11. Lucy !!!!!

    A rain of flowers descended
    (sweet in the memory)
    from the beautiful branches into her lap,
    and she sat there
    humble amongst such glory,
    covered now by the loving shower…

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