The Kiss in the Tunnel

1899
Silent
1m

A classic saucy sketch, a chance for canoodling in the carriage as the train hits a tunnel

The opportunistic kiss while a train goes through a tunnel and no-one can see was the subject of two films made around the same time. This one, by the Riley Brothers for Bamforth's, has a similar fictional scene to the G A Smith film but arguably improves on it with a more practical set. The two shots of the train going into and emerging from the tunnel are more distant, 'God's eye' views rather than the more immersive 'phantom ride' of Smith's version.

Comedy. Newlyweds kiss when their train enters a tunnel.

Inventing Film Language

As with any new technology, it was film’s early adopters whose innovations and discoveries began to map out what is possible.

The first filmmakers had a lot to learn, but they learnt quickly, driven by their own creative ambitions and by audiences' hunger for novelty. Most of the techniques we know today were in place by the end of the Victorian period.

It was the Victorian pioneers who developed the essential building blocks of film; close-ups, pans and travelling shots; editing and principles of continuity. And their ambition spurred them to innovate numerous tricks and effects, from jump-cuts, to double-exposure and even split screen. Generations of later filmmakers would refine these methods, but the groundwork had already been done.