Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Yesterday, after posting about “Persuasion,” I asked my online peeps what their favorite on-screen kiss was. I did not ask for Best; I asked for Favorite.

When Best walks in the door, it has Judgment on one arm and Argument on the other, while Favorite is pure opinion. You can’t argue or judge someone’s favorite. Best is an opinion. Favorite…Favorite just is.

The list was interesting, and I was surprised by each and every response, in one way or another. Some choices hinted at the flip-side of my friends’ personal coin. Others were obvious sentimental choices. Others were temporal, tied more to a time or event than to the movie itself. All were illuminating, and I can easily see how any of them could be someone’s favorite.

As with everything, this is all grist for the novelist’s Character Creation mill. The quirks and quiet, inner details of personalities fascinate. People are like fractals: the deeper you look, the more detail you see.

Here’s the list. Feel free to add yours in comments!

• Buttercup and Westley in The Princess Bride.
• Brokeback Mountain.
• Scarlett and Rhett on a bridge, the night sky of Atlanta blazing with fire.
• The Golden Girls, with Blanche and her boyfriend.
• The whole last film clip in Cinema Paradiso.
• Lady and the Tramp.
• 3 Days of the Condor.
• It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey and Mary Hatch at foot of stairs.
• Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in To Dance with the White Dog.
• Desert Hearts, Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau in the car in the rain.
• Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in Foul Play.
• And my favorite, I’ve already mentioned…

So, what’s your favorite?

k