The Kuleshov effect is a hypothesis from Soviet filmmaker,
Lev Kuleshov that derive more meaning from two shots in
sequence than one alone; this means that the editing of a
film can be more effective in influencing an audiences
perspective than the shots themselves.
The use of montage
to this effect is common in Soviet cinema but more famously
was used by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock describes the Kuleshov
effect by contrasting two similar scenarios: First we see a shot
of a man smiling followed by a shot of a mother and baby.
Hitchcock explains that as an audience we would deduce that the
man is caring and loving and would generally have a positive
reaction to his character. However, with the same first shot
of the smiling man and the second shot of a woman in a bikini
we have a different perception of this man as he is now viewed as
predatory and a pervert. In both sequences the same man is smiling
but the audience has an opposing view of him. This is an example
of the Kuleshov effect in action as we see the editing of a sequence
have more of an influence than the individual shots themselves.
The same effect can be used through the juxtopostion of video and
audio. Because video and audio both have such a large effect of the
general perception of a piece, giving contrasting the two can
conflict the audience, making sad shots seem happy or vice versa.
This can also be used for comedic effect as can be seen in the film
“Spiderman 3”; the climax of the film contains a fight taking place in
a library, in the foreground of the shot we see an old man reading a
book with headphones on and in the background the fight between
Spiderman and his nemesis is taking place. The afformentioned old
man is wearing headphones and therefore the digetic sounds from the
fight are replaced with the classical music. The violence of the
fight contrasts with the calmness of the music and this conflict
is inherently funny.
The Kuleshov effect is therefore a powerful tool for directors to
manipulate audiences in their perception of characters and stories
in the way that they would like, whether its building love or disdain
towards a certain character or merely making the audience laugh.
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