"The Kiss" is a 1896 very short film, starring stage actors May Irwin and John Rice, and shot by Thomas Edison, depicting a kiss.

At the time the film was shot, Irwin and Rice were acting in a stage play called "The Widow Jones", and the movie is a reenactment of the final moment of the play, when the two of them kiss. While not exactly a "movie" by our modern definition, it is a very early example of a scene meant to carry some dramatic import, rather than just to show off the ability of a camera to capture motion.

Along with failing modern standards of dramatic storytelling, the kiss, as scintillating as it might have been at the time, falls short of our modern notions of romance. Neither one of the actors is exactly sexy, and their kiss seems to be holding their checks together while mumbling to each other, followed by a few seconds of a full-on kiss. Still, considering this came out two centuries ago, it gets a pass.