Big (1988)

Awkward Adolescent Fondling/Kissing

Director Penny Marshall's funny and touching romantic fantasy was about how a young boy had his wish (told to Zoltar Speaks, an amusement park fortune-telling machine) fulfilled to become "big."

Young 13 year-olod teen Josh Baskin (Best Actor-nominated Tom Hanks) - in a 30 year old's body - awkwardly fell in love with an ambitious co-worker - 27 year-old yuppie toy executive Susan Lawrence (Elizabeth Perkins), who found his childlike innocence irresistible.

Earlier, she had asked to spend the night for a 'sleep-over' - followed by Josh's guileless reply about his preference for sleeping on the top bunk:

"OK, but I get to be on top."

Later, they shared a tender, simple and innocent scene in which he gently touched her breast through her bra before offering her a sweet kiss.

Big Top Pee-Wee (1988)

Record-Long Screen Kiss

This was the second installment of the big-screen series (following Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)) starring Paul Reubens as gawky man-child Pee Wee Herman, in which he was involved in an unlikely love-triangle.

He shared a 1 minute 30 second kiss (whittled down from 3 minutes) - his first screen kiss - with Italian trapeze artist Gina Piccolapupula (Valeria Golino) from the traveling Cabrini Circus. They had just identified some shapes made by the clouds in the sky ("a man and a woman - kissing"). Gina's elephant Flora took a bath near them. During the lengthy kiss, the camera pulled back slowly from the lustfully-smooching couple.

They were interrupted when Pee Wee's sweet, chaste schoolteacher fiancee Winnie Johnston (Penelope Ann Miller) spotted them, angrily tossed Pee Wee's egg-salad sandwiches that she had made for his lunch into the water, and stormed off. When Gina asked who the angry woman was, Pee-Wee identified her: "She's my fiancée." Gina slapped Pee Wee hard in the face and left. Winnie - who was "stunned" by the kiss - wanted to break off her engagement to Pee Wee. She identified why Gina's kiss was inevitable: "You're a man. She's Italian."

After Pee Wee reconciled with Gina, the couple made love - symbolically accompanied by clichéd orgasmic images, including:

• a train entering a tunnel
• explosive fireworks
• bubbling and red-hot volcanic lava
• white surf crashing against rocks
• two female mud-wrestlers battling each other

Big Top Pee-Wee (1988)

Closing Iris Kiss

In the film's conclusion, Pee-Wee had become Gina's trapeze partner in the show - and they again kissed as the film ended with an iris closing in on them.

Pee-Wee winked at the camera when the iris momentarily reopened.

Bull Durham (1988)

"Long, Slow, Deep, Soft, Wet Kisses..."

Minor-league baseball and sex were interwoven into director/writer Ron Shelton's romantic sports drama about the Carolina Leagues team, the Durham Bulls.

In one striking scene, veteran, romantic-minded, minor league catcher "Crash" Davis (Kevin Costner) confronted the bold affections of part-time junior-college English teacher and sexually-seductive baseball groupie Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon). In her living room, he gave the female baseball devotee a classic, philosophical speech about what his beliefs were, including a kiss-related sentence, before opting out of her offer to be the baseball player she would choose to bed that year:

"Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hangin' curveball, high fiber, good Scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, over-rated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there oughta be a constitutional amendment outlawing AstroTurf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve. And I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. Good-night."

She responded with a breathless reply: "Oh my!"

Bull Durham (1988)

"Sixty Minute Man" Kisses

Later, although Annie had chosen young prodigy, Durham Bulls pitcher Ebby "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) as her sexual conquest for the season, she began to realize that "Crash" might be a better-suited match for her sexual come-ons. She came to Crash's place and offered herself: "I want you," but when he declined, she flatly stated: "This is the damnedest season I've ever seen. I mean, the Durham Bulls can't lose, and I can't get laid."

She had another chance to sample his beliefs about 3-day long kisses at the conclusion of the film when "Crash" was released from baseball playing altogether (although he might become a minor league manager) and he sought to retire with dignity. He looked up Annie, and over a drink, they kissed - and he used one hand to pull up her skirt and skillfully unsnap her black stocking garter, causing her to exclaim: "Oh, my!" followed by the unbuttoning of the back of her dress. She unbuckled his trouser's belt and undid his pants, and then kissed his slightly-hairy bare chest and sucked on his nipple.

They made love - and rolled over, tumbling from the bed to the floor, still kissing and locked together, as she grabbed for traction from a nearby table leg - moaning and shaking. Their love-making was followed by bowls of Wheaties ("Breakfast of Champions") in the kitchen. Wearing his oversized sports jacket (while he wore one of her kimono robes), she glowed at him: "God, you are gorgeous," and then asked: "You wanna dance?" He tossed his cereal bowl into the sink where it smashed into pieces, and he pulled her onto the kitchen table, where they resumed making love after he answered: "Yes." Annie responded: "I guess you do."

Kissing Everywhere

They were then dancing in her living room, to the tune of the Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man." In the next scene, Annie's arms were tied to the bedpost, as she succumbed to having her toenails painted red by "Crash." And then they were in the bathtub together - he was kissing her bare chest and embracing her while the two were surrounded by candles. Their wild sloshing and splashing doused the flames on the candles next to the tub.

Cinema Paradiso (1988, It./Fr.) (aka Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)

First-Love Kisses

Told in flashback, middle-aged Italian film director Salvatore Di Vita (Jacques Perrin as adult) remembered back to his mischievous peasant childhood 30 years earlier during the post-war period in the small Sicilian town of Giancaldo, when he was called Toto (Salvatore Cascio as boy).

There, as the dreamy-eyed teenaged projectionist (Marco Leonardi as teenager) in the local Cinema Paradiso movie theatre next to the town square, he fell in love at first sight with a rich banker's pretty daughter, a blonde, blue-eyed classmate named Elena Mendola (Agnese Nano).

After hearing a fairy tale story about a princess from his kind-hearted mentor Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), the previous projectionist who was burned (and blinded) in a fire and saved by Toto, the adolescent re-enacted the tale of the princess by standing vigil outside Elena's window for many months (100 days). And then she miraculously appeared after he had given up hope in the projectionist booth and kissed him lovingly - making him forget his responsibilities when the film reel ran out.

Their romance was thwarted by Elena's disapproving father and when she went away to university in Palermo, but they were reunited one memorable time during a hot summer night when he was lying on his back and looking at the sky during the outdoor screening of Ulysses (1954) starring Kirk Douglas. He imagined a Hollywood romance and kiss with Elena (one similar to all the scenes excised by the priest from the projected reels), and asked himself:

"When will this rotten summer end? In a film, it'd already be over. Fade-out: cut to storm. Wouldn't that be great?"

The skies suddenly opened up with pouring rain as Elena appeared out of nowhere above him and began hungrily kissing him. Astonished, he asked: "Elena -- But when?" She told him: "Today. You can't imagine the excuses I made up to come here."

Sadly, the couple eventually lost contact with each other when he joined the military.

Cinema Paradiso (1988, It./Fr.) (aka Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)

Censored Kisses

This Best Foreign Language Film by the Academy also had the euphoric, nostalgic scene of middle-aged, silver-haired Italian film director Salvatore Di Vita returning to his childhood, small-town Sicilian home of Giancaldo after 30 years for the funeral of his mentor/projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret).

He revisited the condemned Cinema Paradiso theatre in the town square when it was sadly destroyed to make way for a city parking lot.

Alfredo's widow gave him one last reel of film, which he took back with him to Rome and screened. It was composed of all the excised and censored (or "pornographic") segments of kisses (presented in an amorous montage - two stills shown to the right) that the village priest Father Adelfio (Leopoldo Trieste) had ordered snipped from dozens of films shown there during his childhood.

See "The Censored Kisses and Scenes of Cinema Paradiso (1988): The Kissing Montage"

Cocktail (1988)

Waterfall, and Glowing Beach Kisses

Director Roger Donaldson's romantic drama was a big moneymaker ($78 million), although it received four Razzie nominations and two awards: Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay. Tom Cruise was also nominated as Worst Actor.

While working at a Jamaican bar after a falling out with his best friend-buddy Doug (Bryan Brown), cocktail bartender Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise) found romance with vacationing aspiring NYC artist/waitress Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue).

During a waterfall swimming scene, they both kissed and then their passions ignited when both removed their swimming suits underwater and kissed again.

In the next scene, their kissing silhouettes were seen before a nighttime fire, and then they hugged each other and dreamed about idyllically living on the beach together.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

Seductive, Blackmailing, Game-Playing Kisses

Director Stephen Frears' sexy period film illustrated French 18th century one-upmanship, game-playing, seductive passion, betrayal and romantic intrigue. The film was remade as the hip Cruel Intentions (1999).

Bored, aristocratic, wicked and wealthy widow Marquise De Merteuil (Glenn Close) challenged devilish, rakish ex-lover Vicomte De Valmont (John Malkovich) to "Wa-a-a-a-r" with her bed as the prize. Their dangerous liaisons involved treacherous games played with other people's lives. She wanted him to seduce a virgin (the fiancee of her ex-husband).

He cruelly accomplished the bet - he seduced and 'deflowered' teenaged bride-to-be virgin Cecile De Volanges (Uma Thurman). During his first nocturnal visit to her bedroom, he stroked her body as she slept, and then claimed he was there as a result of her invitation with a key. He started out: "I just want you to give me a kiss...That's all...Then I'll go." It was more than a simple kiss - he also stroked her breasts. He then complimented her: "Very nice." But he would not leave - and then he began untying her nightgown. He made an under-handed claim:

Valmont: "I promised to go when you gave me a kiss. You didn't give me a kiss. I gave you a kiss. Not the same thing at all."
Cecile: "And if I give you a kiss...?"
Valmont: "Let's just get ourselves more comfortable, shall we?"

Later, Cecile told the Marquise that she wasn't actually forced to give herself up: "But I found it almost impossible to defend myself...He just has a way of putting things. You can't think of an answer." She professed: "I kept on saying no all the time. But somehow, that wasn't what I was doing. I am so ashamed." The Marquise told the seduced Cecile: "You'll find the shame is like the pain. You only feel it once." She then advised that she should allow Valmont to continue his "instruction" - and that she could become cautiously promiscuous: "You can do it, or not, with as many men as you like as often as you like in as many different ways as you like. Our sex has few enough advantages, so you may as well make the best of those you have."

The next time with Cecile, Valmont stressed the need to use the "correct polite vocabulary" - calling everything by its "proper name." And he described how he had been one of her own energetic mother's many lovers. As he caressed her chest and kissed her breast, he promulgated the need for sex education for her future husband's sake: "You asked me if Monsieur de Bastide would be pleased with your abilities. And the answer is, 'education is never a waste.' Now, I think we might begin with one or two Latin terms."

Rain Man (1988)

A "Wet" Kiss in a Stopped Elevator

Director Barry Levinson's Best Picture-winning road-drama told of the strained relationship between two brothers during a six-day cross-country adventure together, driving westward from Ohio to Los Angeles, with a stop-over sojourn in Las Vegas (to win money at blackjack by counting cards):

• wheeler-dealer, hustling, and selfish Charlie (Tom Cruise)
• idiot savant autistic Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman)

In a Las Vegas casino elevator that she had stopped with the emergency button, Charlie's girlfriend Susanna (Valeria Golino) asked Raymond to show her how to dance ("Show me how"), after having been taught by Charlie. She complimented him: "You're very good." She asked: "Have you ever kissed a girl?" Raymond shyly responded: "I don't know."

She instructed Raymond how to kiss: "Open your mouth. Open. Like this. Like you were tasting something very good, and very soft....Like this. Close your eyes." After he opened his lips and entire mouth, she then gave him a slow kiss - while he kept his eyes shut. He flinched a bit when she first touched him, but she reassured: "It's okay, Ray."

His reaction when asked how it was --- "Wet!" She giggled: "Then we did it right." He was still worried about the state of the elevator: "Elevator's definitely stuck."

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

An Interrupted Theater Kiss

Director Roger Zemeckis' brilliant and inventive live-action and animated film was a blend of comedy, film-noir mystery, and romance, set in the Los Angeles area of 1947.

After hysterical 'toon star Roger Rabbit (voice of Charles Fleischer), seedy gumshoe detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) and his girl Dolores (Joanna Cassidy) had escaped the clutches of the evil and creepy Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd), Eddie and Dolores shared an intimate moment while hiding out in a movie theater from the weasels, as cartoon shorts and news reports played on the screen. They exchanged some kind words together, as Eddie apologized for embroiling her in danger, but were interrupted by the sentimental Roger:

Valiant: "I'm sorry about the trouble in the bar."
Dolores: "Well, stuffing olives for a living wasn't for me anyway."
Valiant: "Dolores? You ought to find yourself a good man."
Dolores: "But I already have a good man." (They were just about to kiss, when they heard a sigh and turned forward)
Roger: (leaning expectantly over the seat in front of them, staring and interrupting them, with a romantic swoon) "Pl-pl-please, don't mind me."
Dolores: "You'd better get going, Eddie."

Roger had small red hearts in the pupils of his eyes and his ears folded to form a heart shape. Roger had broken the romantic spell, and Dolores turned business-like.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

A Surprise Kiss for a Toon

After Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) had been defeated and Toontown was saved, Roger Rabbit (voice of Charles Fleischer) offered to shake hands with Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins).

Roger: "That was a pretty funny dance you did for the Weasels. Do you think your days of bein' a sourpuss are over?"
Eddie: "Only time will tell."
Roger: (stretching out his hand for a shake) "Yeah, well, put 'er there, pal!"

The prank gag buzzer went off in his hand and immediately jolted Eddie - he was not amused by the shock of the joy buzzer and glowered menacingly. All the Toons gasped. When he glared at Roger, the rabbit nervously gulped in fear:

"Don't tell me you lost your sense of humor already?"

Valiant grabbed him by the neck and replied: "Does this answer your question?" - and gave him a big wet, noisy smackeroo kiss (after being repulsed earlier in the film by Roger's attempt to give him one). Roger pulled away, wiped his mouth, and went "Pooey!" All the denizens of Toontown ( the Toons) cheered, Jessica promised Roger: "Come on, Roger, let's go home. I'll bake you a carrot cake," and everyone began singing Smile, Darn Ya, Smile.