1899 early film kiss - ’The Kiss in the Tunnel’ | BFI National Archive

Subscribe: Watch more on BFI Player: The earliest film kiss held by the BFI National Archive is this stolen smooch aboard a steam train, intended as a comic filler sequence to play as part of the ‘phantom ride’ films popular in Victorian cinema. G. A. Smith’s 1899 film shows a train going into a dark tunnel, revealing a couple in a railway carriage taking the opportunity to steal a kiss. As the train apparently emerges into the light the couple move apart in a guilty fashion, and although scarcely enough to make your Victorian grandmother blush, it gives the scene its slight frisson of naughtiness. But Smith’s Kiss in the Tunnel is also one of the world’s most important early films because it is one of the first to edit together several related shots. Exhibitors were recommended that it be shown, to add humour, between a phantom ride of a train going into, then coming out of, a tunnel. This video is part of the Orphan Works collection. When the rights-holder for a film cannot be found, that film is classified as an Orphan Work. Find out more about Orphan Works: This is in line with the EU Orphan Works Directive of 2012. The results of our search for the rights holder of this film can be found in the EU Orphan Works Database: Watch more on the BFI Player: Follow us on Twitter: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Google : britishfilminstitute/