The Kiss in the Tunnel

I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place – but that's about it.

Not unlike my feeling when I saw Lumiere shoot form a leaving train, I was taken by the smooth movement into the tunnel that the film opens with and likewise the exit at the end. I liked it technically but also as a story telling device because it tells the viewer that the middle part of the story in the carriage is occurring in this tunnel. Essentially it has put the viewer on the train. It is an effective narrative tool but you need to remember that at this time there were no set narrative devices like we have now. The conventions of cinematic story telling are so set that we now only notice them when they are shunned. So here this is interesting to watch in regards seeing this early device used.

However the middle section is not as good. A simple static shot that has a man kiss a woman on the cheek with a lot of fuss leading up to it. It is not funny or interesting and seems out of place with the technical strength at the start. Worth a look to appreciate the narrative device but not much more than that.

I'm going to be fair with both versions of this comedic subject: I liked the Phantom Ride in this film better, but the kiss in the Bamforth film (see my review for that film) is more romantic. However, BOTH are extremely important in the history of cinema because in 1899 most films were only one shot long--and this film has three: the train going in the tunnel, the kiss, and the train coming out. Yes, the plot is really weak, but it's actually well above average for 1899.

G. A. Smith would later become even more important for his uses of closeups and cutting, but even by 1899 he was already getting pretty innovative, as evidenced by this movie. Both versions of this 'comedy' are worth looking at simply for comparison, but for modern audiences today there's nothing especially great to see in either one.

A Kiss in the Tunnel (1899)

The camera is stationed on a railroad track outside a tunnel. The camera then begins to move in the camera when we get an edit to a man and woman on the train kissing. We then get another edit as the camera is now moving out of the tunnel.

A KISS IN THE TUNNEL proved to be so popular that another film with the same title and the same subject was released the very same year. Talk about a fast remake! Actually, this here was quite common back in the day. This short is actually rather creative with the way it uses editing to somewhat tell a story. The use of coming into the tunnel, having the kissing and then going out of the tunnel was certainly creative for its day and makes this a rather important picture for early cinema.

This is quite a sophisticated little feature for its time. Phantom rides, where a camera was fixed to the front of a train and then filmed the passing scenery as the track disappeared beneath it were extremely popular for a while in the late 19th century, and George Albert Smith, one of the Brighton School filmmakers, used this format to fashion a clever little film by inserting a shot between two phantom views of a train entering and leaving a tunnel of a couple (played by Smith and his wife) enjoying a couple of kisses. Metaphors - whether intended or otherwise - abound, and have done ever since, especially in the hands of Hitchcock. It no doubt proved quite saucy to a Victorian audience still conditioned to believe that displays of affection between husband and wife should be confined to the boudoir.

You see a train exiting the tunnel, and then you see - from the train's perspective - another train entering the tunnel from the opposite direction. Then the view switches to inside the train where a couple exchange a few kisses. This was actually shot in a studio. Finally, you are seeing things from the train's perspective again as the train exits the tunnel.

The copy I saw was very clear, almost appearing to be a film made today and altered to look like it was made in 1899. But of course it is clear. All the information is there in a 35 mm print (16 mm came much later). The image is uncompressed, a resolution equivalent of probably 6K. 35mm was used from the beginning, and it became standard around 1905. Bad resolution on youtube is usually because of the up-loader. A bad VHS-print in 480p is still a bad VHS print. You can't improve the image by using a higher resolution, the information is gone forever. You can rely on BFI to use the best methods.

The couple kissing was played by director G. A. Smith and his wife. Smith made a different version of this same film later in 1899.