Kuleshov effect: what it is and how it is used in the cinema

For a large part of the population, the seventh art is an element of leisure and entertainment, or a method of artistic expression of the emotions, thoughts and beliefs of the authors which in turn are reflected by the cast of actors.

However, cinema is not something anecdotal or merely aesthetic: it involves a large amount of knowledge that has been developed along the way. over the years, many of which start or have contributed greatly to generate discoveries and research in many other scopes.

The study of the human mind is one of them. In this sense, it is possible to highlight the research related to the perception of visual stimuli, and even to the interpretation or elaboration that our mind makes of a set of images not necessarily linked between Yes. A relevant example is the kuleshov effect, about which we are going to talk throughout this article.

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The Kuleshov effect

The Kuleshov effect is a psychological phenomenon discovered in the cinematographic field

of great relevance and that is linked to the interpretation and understanding by the viewer of the scenes that he visualizes based on the context that surrounds them.

Specifically, the effect in question states that consecutive presentation of footage or takes implies that the viewer performs a joint performance, in such a way that each image will not be evaluated separately but rather a integration that will result in a different valuation than the one that each would have in a Independent.

Kuleshov proposed that the perceived meaning of a given scene is elaborated based on the sequence of which it is part, rather than the image itself. In other words, the Kuleshov effect establishes that the content of the scene or painting itself is not relevant, but rather what causes it to have a meaning is its union with other paintings or scenes, in such a way that a current is generated in the form of narrative.

Kuleshov and Pudovkin's experiments

The creation of the concept of the Kuleshov effect starts from the realization by an experiment carried out by filmmaker Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov, along with his disciples Vsevolod Illiarianovich Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein (the information of which would end up being transcended by Pudovkin and Kuleshov himself).

This experiment consisted of the combination of different recordings (shot separately) and a scene (always the same) of a close-up of the actor Iván Mozzhujin with an expression completely neutral. A total of three combinations were made: in one of them, the audience was exposed to a combination of the actor's neutral face with the appearance of a plate with soup, in another the face was followed by an image of a naked woman on a sofa and in the third the image of a girl was seen after the face Playing.

These exhibitions gave rise to different interpretations of the actor's face by the spectators., despite the fact that the face that was exposed to them was in all cases the same: those who saw the face associated with the soup plate linked the expression of the actor with hunger, those who saw the composition in which the image of a naked woman was included the spectators perceived lust and lust on the actor's face and those who saw the girl playing perceived that the author expressed joy and a slight smile.

In that sense, then, the experiment reflected that through different compositions they could be extracted different interpretations of the scenes, depending on the type of stimuli that preceded or followed said scene.

Now, there is some controversy as to whether this experiment was actually carried out since there are no documentary evidence of the recordings, Lev Kuleshov having indicated that they were destroyed at the time of the Second War World. Likewise, there is an open debate between the statements of Kuleshov and those of Pudovkin: whereas, as we have indicated before, Kuleshov himself indicated that the scenes leading up to the actor's face had been a bowl of soup, a half-naked woman on a sofa, and a girl playing, Pudovkin's description replaces the naked woman by a shot of a woman in a coffin (in this case it was indicated that the viewer considered that the actor expressed sadness and absorption).

However, regardless of the veracity of this original first experiment, other authors and directors (including Hitchcock) have attempted to replicate similar experiments and have observed the existence of an influence of the montage made with respect to the emotional interpretation that takes place from the scene. In other words, the Kuleshov effect exists and has an influence on our perception of reality.

Relationship with the construction of meanings

The Kuleshov effect has a psychological explanation: our psyche seeks to generate a coherent structure regarding what it experiences, in such a way that when faced with images that are presented together, it tries to generate a link between the two that allows them to give meaning to their perception.

This stems from the fact that they are not mere passive entities that receive information from the environment, but rather we are active agents that interact and generate their own meanings regarding the world that surrounds. Likewise, our expectations and previous experiences will shape the type of interpretation and the point starting point on the basis of which to assess the situation in question and construct the most relevant.

For all this, today our knowledge about the Kuleshov effect is used when transmitting meaning in the cinema, and it is understood that the editing process is another narrative tool, not a simple technical specialization lacking in creativity. Editing, combining and cutting shots and scenes helps tell the story that the film's authors intend to tell.

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Not only in the cinema

Although this effect began to be analyzed in the field of cinema (in which it has great importance, since it contributed to the fact that films could shoot scenes separately or even independently to later carry out a montage that allows to enhance the sensations of the spectators), the truth is that it can be extended to many others.

For example, it has also been reflected in the literatureIn such a way that reading a certain content makes us interpret the following in a different way than we would if the preceding fragments were different. And not only in the field of the arts: human beings also carry out similar interpretations in their day to day, especially in the recognition of faces and facial expressions.

Some experiments have shown that the crossover or combination of affective contextual stimuli before or after the exposure of the image of a neutral face causes both behavioral and brain level our interpretation and reaction to the face in question to differ somewhat: there is a tendency to assess both the affective as the level of activation and specifically the type of emotion expressed by the person in question based on the context and the set of stimuli that surround the moment of exposure in question.

It must be borne in mind that on a day-to-day basis we not only use context to identify the emotions of others, but nevertheless we often use contextual information to seek consistency with our beliefs regarding what the other is feeling, or we use it to try to give meaning to ambiguous expressions or situations. Likewise, not only external images serve us to carry out the interpretation: the speech, the gestures or the tone and rhythm of the subject in question can mark us to a great extent and can in fact be considered information contextual.

Bibliographic references

• Barratt, D., Rédei, A. C., Innes-Ker, Å. and van de Weijer, J. (2016). Does the Kuleshov effect really exist? Revisiting a classic film experiment on facial expressions and emotional contexts. Perception 45, 847–874.
• Calbi, M.; Heimann, K., Barratt, D., Siri, F., Umiltà, M.A. and Gallese, V. (2017). How Context Influences Our Perception of Emotional Faces: A Behavioral Study on the Kuleshov Effect. Front. Psychol., 04.
• Chihu, A. (2010). The audiovisual framing of the political Spot. Culture and social representations. Year 5, (9): 174-197.
• Gordillo, F., Mestas, L. and Pérez, M.A. (2018). The Kuleshov effect: the integration of context and facial expression in the perception of emotions. Elements, 109: 35-40.
• Kuleshov, L. (1974). Kuleshov on Film. Writings of Lev Kuleshov, Ronald Levaco (trans. and ed.), Berkeley, University of California Press.
• Mobbs, D., Weiskopf, N., Lau, H.C., Featherstone, E., Dolan, R.J. and Frith, C.D. (2006). The Kuleshov Effect: the influence of contextual framing and emotional attributions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1 (2): 95-106.