Abstract
In 1988, a movie about movies and their crucial role in shaping the modern world, called Cinema Paradiso (in Italy Nuovo Cinema Paradiso), by the then-emerging Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore, ends with one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in cinema history. The protagonist, Totò, who as a boy in the 1950s used to love going to the movie theater of his village, called Cinema Paradiso, and helping out the projectionist Alfredo is left a package by Alfredo, after his death. He goes back to the small village of his youth as a famous director, and is welcomed by those who still are alive to remember him. Totò opens the package when he is back home in Rome and finds in it all the forbidden kissing scenes that were censored by the kindly and well-meaning parish priest of his childhood. The scene is accompanied by the wistful music of Ennio Morricone, recalling the kindness of Alfredo and his love for Totò. The kiss is thus transformed into a nostalgic symbol of a simpler and more naïve time, now almost forgotten.
The kiss of an actress is the most unnerving. How can we tell if she means it or if she’s just practicing?
—Ruth Gordon (1896–1985)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Cited in Laura Citron, A Compendium of Kisses (New York: Harlequin, 2011), p. 76.
See also André Gaudreault and Germain Lacasse, “The Introduction of the Lumière Cinematograph in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 5 (1996): 112–123, for an overview of the effect of Edison’s new technology on social change.
Jean-Luc Godard, Projections (London: Faber and Faber, 1992), p. 8.
Cited in John Berger, Sense of Sight (New York: Vintage, 1993), p. 12.
Timothy Knight, Great Kisses and Famous lines Right Out of the Movies (New York: It Books, 2008).
Richard J. Harris, Fred W. Sanborn, Christina L. Scott, Laura A. Dodds, and Jason D. Brandenberg, “Autobiographical Memories for Seeing Romantic Movies on a Date: Romance Is Not Just for Women,” Media Psychology 6 (2004): 257–284.
Emily W. Leider, Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).
David Baird, Captivating Couples: Celebrating Love on the Silver Screen (London: MQ Publications, 2005), p. 9.
In-depth analyses of the social effects of Greed can be found in Joel W. Finler, Greed: A Film (New York: Lorimer, 1971)
and Richard Koszarski, The Man You Love to Hate: Erich von Stroheim and Hollywood (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).
See Sheldon Hall and Stephen Neale, Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010).
Marcel Danesi, X-Rated: The Power of Mythic Symbolism in Popular Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
Mark I. Pinsky, The Gospel according to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), p. 77.
James C. Robertson, The Casablanca Man: The Cinema of Michael Curtiz (London: Routledge, 1993).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Marcel Danesi
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Danesi, M. (2013). The Kiss Goes to the Movies. In: The History of the Kiss!. Semiotics and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137376855_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137376855_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-37684-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-37685-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)