Oh dear. Meme, what do you mean by "best"? Sexiest? Most loving? Most surprising? Most tender? Most meaningful? Okay, I'll try to be variable.

1) The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and the kid (Jackie Coogan) in The Kid. This particular kiss, from one of my favourite silent movies of all times (come to think of it, one of my favourite movies, full stop), probably wouldn't happen in a current day film. Not because we don't still do stories featuring foster parents reunited with their children after social welfare tried to separate them, but because today a fictional foster father can't kiss his son on the mouth without this being questioned for subtext. But see this film today - with hits Chaplinesque mixture of farce and Victorian melodrama - and it still works: the kid crying when the social workers take it away (autobiographical shadows, if you want; Chaplin and his brother Syd were taken from their mother and put into an orphanage after she had a breakdown), the tramp pursuing over the roofs, the two reunited, and that relieved, joyful kiss of parental/filial love.

And because I can't miss an opportunity to go "Watch The Kid! You must!!!", here are two scenes that illustrate neatly what critics mean when they say Jackie Coogan was the best co-star Chaplin ever had. First a funny one:



And now the one with the kiss I mean:




2) Avon (Paul Darrow) and Servalan (Jaqueline Pearce) in Aftermath, season 3 of Blake's 7. That would be the kiss which isn't about love at all, but powerplay on both sides, with fantastic sexual chemistry. Alas, YouTube fails me. So you have to take my word for it. Sizzling.

3) Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and Scott Smith (James Franco) in Milk. Playing a couple, they of course kiss more than once in that movie, but the one I'm thinking happens early after they've moved to San Francisco, in front of their newly acquired shop, after Harvey had a run-in with a homophobe. My example for a kiss which is sexy and tender at the same time, between an established couple, conveying hope, determination and joy in each other.

4) Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and his brother Fredo (John Cazale), in The Godfather II. That's my example of "most shocking and relevant to drama kiss". Michael in this second of the Godfather movies has found out a while ago that his brother Fredo was the one who had traded information on him, and on New Year's Eve in a pre-Castro Cuba, he lets him know that he knows. And they both know what this means. Copied, parodied, imitated, this scene still retains its raw power after all these years.



5) Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) in Thelma and Louise. My example for a kiss meaning friendship, affirmation, goodbye, and so much more. The ending of Thelma and Louise has precedents - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, to name the most obvious - but that doesn't take from its emotional power. Here, the women, the journey we've followed them on, and their no-win situation come together in one decision. Starting with a kiss.