There are a surprising number of lesbian screen kisses to choose from, but these are really the most memorable ones. Some of them really might surprise you. See if you agree about these being the top 10 best on-screen lesbian kisses of all time.
Ah, Roman Polanski, what can we say about the pervy Pole? There are very few of his fantasies that have not appeared in his films at one point or another, and we say, well done Roman! This film is set aboard a ship sailing towards Istanbul and is full of the bored and the rich. Seigner, playing Mimi a sensual exhibitionist of the first degree, was Polanski's real life wife at the time.
She and Scott Thomas kiss in front of a crowd of people. Of course, Scott Thomas' husband is outraged. Mimi's husband (played masterfully by Peter Coyote, the jingly keys scientist in ET: The Extra Terrestrial) says to him, “Oh, stop sulking, man. You ought to be glad they're getting on so well”. A good line. Shame about the rest of the film.
Before Lara, and before Brad, Angelina was making a name for herself as a serious actress. This 19980 HBO funded movie garnered her an Emmy nomination. In the film, she plays the supermodel Gia Carangi. Based on a real life story, the film tells the story of the model's death from AIDS.
Poignant and touching, a real favourite and one of the few films on this list, to be honest, that includes lesbian kissing as an integral part of the plot, rather than for the titillation of the heterosexual men watching.
One of the better coming of age films of recent years, Evie Zamore (Reed) stars (in a script that she co-wrote) about a rebellious teenage girl who takes the Wood character, Tracy Freeland, into a new and exciting world of promiscuity, drugs, lesbian experimentation and self-mutilation.
The scene comes when Evie teases Tracy about her inexperience on the kissing front. Tracy's response - a classic - is that she and a friend practiced with Cruel Intentions - see the film on this list also. Her first attempt to prove this, leaves Evie unimpressed - cue an even more passionate snog.
Sometimes known as “Betty Does Hollywood”, this features then little known Naomi Watts as a girl who wins a dance competition and moves to her Aunt's house in Hollywood. She meets Rita who, after an attempt on her life, is suffering from amnesia. The two set out to discover the real truth. This film is one of Lynch's less surreal, but still has a lot of his characteristic touches - the dwarf (who believes himself to be the devil) and people with odd personality tics - such as the hood who will only drink a certain kind of coffee.
The lesbian scenes do come as quite a surprise to many and the angry pointy ginger of exploitation has been pointed at Lynch. I disagree - Lynch's portrayal of friendship between women which becomes sexual has both nuance and sensitivity.
Matt Dillon struggles manfully as a college lecturer against the machinations of two of his students (played by Richards and Campbell) when they both accuse him of raping them.
Kevin Bacon also gets a look in (and a full frontal) playing a cop who is suspicious of the girls' accusations. This really is a poor film and one wonders why the four stars would agree to appear in such exploitative tosh. Ho hum, never mind.
Holy Smoke stars Winslett and Harvey Keitel. She plays a young woman who is kidnapped by Keitel in order to “deprogramme” her after her character has been involved with a cult.
This scene is at a bar when Winslett decides to be a rather naughty young lady with another girl she meets on the dance floor. At this point in her career, Winslett wanted to shrug off the good girl image she had thanks to films such as “Titanic”. This helped.
This 1985 film was very low on budget but big on heart. It was one of the first films to devote the whole running time to a love affair between two women (which ends on a high and happy note!) and as such won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival the year after. It was also the first lesbian film written and directed by a woman - Donna Deitch.
It has at its heart the story of two women in late 1950's Reno. One is a professor from New York, Vivian Bell (played with understatement by Helen Shaver) and a younger woman, Cay, a free spirit before her times (Charbonneau in her debut film appearance). Not a film that is seen much, but highly recommended.
Lesbian kisses in vampire films are so common they are almost a sub-genre. 'The Hunger' is no exception, though is does rise above the likes of Ingrid Pitt cavorting around with her Hammer chums. This film is classy, albeit in a 1980s pop video kind of way. Susan Sarandon - pre-mega stardom - does her best with a slightly flaccid script involving a queen vampire (Deneuve) and her suddenly aging paramour (David Bowie).
As a hematologist, it is up to Sarandon to get to the bottom of Bowie's condition, which she attempts to do by getting to the bottom of Deneuve. Girl on girl action aside, this film boasts one of the best and most memorable opening sequences, where Bowie and Deneuve dispatch a pair of hapless victims to the ethereal tones of Bauhaus' “Bela Lugosi's Dead” - just fabulous!
This was a 1999 teen version of Dangerous Liaisons and it manages to transpose the story from eighteenth century France to modern day Manhattan skillfully and with more than a little wit. Sarah Michelle Gellar is cast against type as an uber-amoral destroyer of lives. She becomes determined to tarnish the clean living reputation of Cecile (Selma Blair) by befriending her, and slowly but surely, morally corrupting the poor thing.
This leads to a scene in the park where Geller attempts to teach Cecile how to french kiss. The connection between lesbianism and immorality here is a little dubious but the pair certainly make quite a go of it!
The life of Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter, is told in this eponymously named film. Although ostensibly heterosexual, Kahlo (played by Hayek) had many affairs with women. This scene from the film shows her dancing with her on-off lover Chavela Vargas (Judd).
The scene is one of smoldering sexuality between the women and is a long drawn out dance between the two which culminates in the kiss. Striking and erotic, the definite number one of the list!
