The most erotic kiss in film history – Notorious

The great erotic moment in “Vertigo” is the one where the man kisses the woman of his fantasy, while the room whirls around him. There is a parallel scene in “Notorious,” and it was famous at the time as “the longest kiss in the history of the movies.” It was not, however, a single kiss, as Tim Dirks points out in his essay on the film (www.filmsite.org/noto.html).

The production code forbade a kiss lasting longer than three seconds, and so Bergman and Grant alternate kissing with dialogue and eyeplay, while never leaving one another’s arms. The sequence begins on a balcony overlooking Rio, encompasses a telephone call and a discussion of the dinner menu, and ends with a parting at the apartment door, taking three minutes in all…

via Notorious :: rogerebert.com :: Great Movies.

On screen Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant were smokin’ hot:

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A fascinating comment from George Kaplan which I’d like to highlight concerning the twisted romance of Hitchcock’s “Notorious”:

I agree about Notorious in particular. The kissing scene. Wow. Interesting that it’s so *dark* tho’. Ingrid is pushed to go through some pretty tough things before Devlin comes to his senses. She’s proving her goodness and love by doing things that people (men in particular) would judge her for. Devlin takes some time to realize her sacrifices but it’s gratifying when he does, even at the last possible moment. Odd, that although he’s a weasel we feel some sympathy for Claude Rains at the end. Well, a little.