Facing Windows (2004, It.) (La Finestra di Fronte, 2003)

Passionate, Illicit Kisses

This heart-tugging Italian tale from Istanbul-born director Ferzan Ozpetek featured the tagline: "Desire Knows No Bounds." It told of an illicit yet loving relationship that developed between two neighbors who lived across the block from each other:

• dissatisfied, love-struck, 29 year-old Rome housewife Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) with two children and husband Filippo (Filippo Nigro)
• handsome, black-rimmed glasses-wearing bachelor neighbor Lorenzo (Raoul Bova)

He was seen in a facing window every night from her kitchen window, where they secretly and passionately lusted after each other.

Her fantasy-longings for a forbidden affair with the young banker were closely paralleled to the doomed affair between gay Jewish lovers in 1943 Europe, recounted by her amnesiac, elderly Holocaust survivor-houseguest Davide Veroli (Massimo Girotti) for his lost lover Simone (Ivan Bacchi) that he tragically chose to sacrifice.

Sitting together on a park bench, Lorenzo told Giovanna how he was reluctantly being transferred in a few days to the Ischia branch of his bank:

"A few days ago, I thought this promotion would save me. It's the last thing I want right now. It seems I always get what I want at the wrong time. Everything's fine as long as I'm dreaming of something, but then when I try to make that become reality, I don't know how to explain it, sorry, I know, but... It's just that I'd stay sitting on this bench forever, even though I know it would never be possible."

She interrupted his halting words with a long kiss.

Later after more flirtations, she shared much more passionate, voracious kisses with Lorenzo on the floor of his candle-lit apartment across from hers, as he told her:

"If you knew for how long I imagined this, and now you're here, and I can kiss you. I can kiss your mouth, your face, your eyes. You never stop, did you know that? You're always moving. Day after day, I watched you, you became an obsession for me. I came home early just to watch you. I hid behind the curtains. I waited for you to go out to see where you went. It was enough to know that you were there, and there were times I couldn't tear myself from the window in the hope that I'd see you one more instant."

After their kisses, she peered back through the window at her family across the way and felt conflicted. He asked her as he hugged her from behind:

"Why do we have to give this up? I know it's difficult for you...to be with me, but it's even more difficult for me to leave you."

And then she left his apartment without a word. Davide's words stirred Giovanna's emotions further when he advised her: "Don't be content to merely survive. You must demand to live in a better world, not just dream about it." Giovanna told her husband that she was going to resign her job ("This was my choice") to work in a pastry shop instead.

As Lorenzo packed to leave, she delayed in coming down from her kitchen to the street to say goodbye and could only watch as his van turned the corner away from her. By film's end, in voice-over, she spoke to Davide in a letter:

"You know, when I think of Lorenzo, I'm afraid I'm already beginning to forget his face, that I can't remember his voice anymore."

There was an intense close-up of Giovanna's eyes underneath the credits - signifying that she had chosen to give up on her fantasy of finding love elsewhere.

50 First Dates (2004)

"Nothing Beats A First Kiss"

Director Peter Segal's sweet romantic comedy (originally titled "50 First Kisses"), a variation on Groundhog Day (1993) and Memento (2000), told about a non-committal, womanizing veterinarian who took advantage of female tourists to Hawaii, until he was smitten by one young beautiful woman:

• Arctic marine life veterinarian Henry Roth (Adam Sandler), an employee at Sea Life Park (Oahu, Hawaii), and an expert at one-night stands and serial affairs with vacationing women
• local art teacher Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore)

When he happened to meet her at waterfront Hukilau Cafe, he broke his long-standing rule about not dating local girls and instantly fell in love. At breakfast the next morning, she had no recollection of their previous meeting. [The film's premise was that she suffered from a form of amnesia that caused her short-term memory to be erased each day; in other words, each day kept repeating itself in her mind.] Therefore, Henry had to devise clever ways to re-meet Lucy every day (because she forgot him every night) and repeatedly renew his love for her. She was a perfect match for him - he could seduce and leave her repeatedly, and she'd never know.

In a series of kissing scenes, he was smooching with her in front of spectacular backdrops, and hearing her say the same words back to him:

• on a moonlit beach with waves crashing in (Henry: "You've been dyin' to make out with me for quite some time now"; he kissed her and asked: "Feelin' better now?"; Lucy responded: "Nothing beats a first kiss")
• at a lighthouse (Lucy: "There's nothing like a first kiss")
• near a field of pineapples at sunset (Lucy: "Nothing beats a first kiss"; Henry: "That's what I've heard")
• at the beach (a bystander who observed: "Nothing beats a first - " and then was knocked down by a wave)
• at the aquarium while he was kissing her and also moving his hand up to feel her breast, they spoke together:

Lucy: "What are you doing?"
Henry: "Nothin', I was just getting some lint off for you."
Lucy: "You were going for a feel-ski!"
Henry: "All right, I'm sorry, but this is like the 23rd time we've made out already, and they're getting blue."
Lucy: "I know, I know. I mean, I really don't know. For me, it still feels like the first time."
Henry: "OK, let's average it out then. It's the 23rd time for me and the first time for you. That's about our 12th time...Now, Hawaiian law clearly states that after the 12th date, I'm entitled to unlimited boob access."

Head in the Clouds (2004)

Lesbian Kiss During Threesome

Writer-director John Duigan's WWII melodrama - a romantic (and erotic) melodrama set in 1930s England, Paris, and Spain (during its civil war), told about a trio of young lovers sharing a Parisian apartment, highlighting sacrifices made to fight fascism and their decades-long love affair:

• young American heiress, photographer and hedonistic libertine Gilda Bessé (recent Oscar-winner Charlize Theron)
• idealistic, intellectual Irish schoolteacher Guy (Charlize Theron's real-life love Stuart Townsend at the time)
• limping Spanish-born model, ex-stripper, nursing student and refugee Mia (Penelope Cruz)

The film included:

• scenes of bisexuality in a hot two-girl tango sequence in a Parisian nightclub during Gilda's romance with Mia
• another threesome scene (when Gilda bedded each of her roommates) in which Gilda and Mia consoled each other, and shared a lesbian kiss while wearing silk negligees - the kissing scene ended when Gilda bit Mia's lip and drew blood

The Notebook (2004)

Joyous Kisses Throughout Life

This old-fashioned, sentimental story of separation and return followed the unfolding, star-crossed relationship between two young people, from the 1940s to decades later:

• 17 year-old Charleston South Carolina society girl Allie Hamilton/Calhoun (Rachel McAdams/Gena Rowlands)
• 19 year-old local mill worker Noah Calhoun/Duke (Ryan Gosling/James Garner)

The film's twist (although fairly obvious after awhile) was that the elderly Noah was a devoted North Carolina nursing home resident/husband reading from a well-worn notebook (to recount their improbable romance and help stir up memories) to his Alzheimer's suffering wife (Allie).

The film was filled with kisses, including the most memorable one:

• a rain-soaked kiss after an idyllic afternoon rowboating through a spectacular duck-filled setting. She was angry at him: "Why didn't you write me? Why? It wasn't over for me." She told him that she waited for him for seven years - "and now it's too late."

She learned for the first time that he had written her 365 love letters (one each day for a year) - although her domineering mother had intercepted them. Noah professed on the dock: "It wasn't over. It still isn't over!" and they passionately embraced and kissed.

Later as an elderly couple, they shared a second kiss and short remembrance of their love during a special candlelight dinner in the nursing home when they danced together - and Allie requested: "Do you think I can be her tonight?"

(Andrew Lloyd Webber's) The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

Kissing the Phantom

Director Joel Schumacher's lavish costume drama adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 Broadway musical told about a gifted young singer and her association with a legendary composer:

• pretty and innocent young soprano Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum)
• facially-disfigured, mysterious, deranged, and masked Phantom (Gerard Butler) who haunted the Opera House

Christine maintained a dark attraction for the Phantom, and finally affectionately and self-sacrificially kissed him in his lair under the Paris Opera, in order to save dashing former childhood sweetheart Raoul Vicomte de Chagny (Patrick Wilson), who had been snared in a Punjab Lasso.

Stunned by the kiss and touched by Christine's kindness, the Phantom set both Christine and Raoul free.

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

"Isn't It About Time Somebody Saved Your Life?" Kiss

In the film's conclusion, Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) long-time best friend Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) left her marriage ceremony and found him in his apartment. Already knowing that he was Spider-Man from the previous scene when he had been unmasked saving her from Doctor Octavius (Alfred Molina), she knew that he loved her, but also realized that he wanted her to avoid risking her life by being with him:

"Spider-Man will always have enemies. I can't let you take that risk. I will always be Spider-Man. You and I can never be."

She explained, however, that she had to be with him:

"Had to do what I had to do....Peter. I can't survive without you...I know you think we can't be together. But can't you respect me enough to let me make my own decision? I know there'll be risks. But I want to face them with you. It's wrong that we should only be half-alive, half of ourselves. I love you. So here I am, standing in your doorway. I've always been standing in your doorway. Isn't it about time somebody saved your life? Well, say something."

He thanked her and they kissed vigorously, although they were predictably interrupted by police sirens as he realized he had to respond to the emergency as the superhero.

She encouraged him: "Go get them, tiger" and watched from his balcony as he swung into action.