History Main / KuleshovEffect

* An edited ''Franchise/''StarWars video made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN74bOubUug its way around social media]], combining footage from ''Film/ANewHope'' where Obi-Wan talks to Luke about his father Anakin, and showing Anakin's fall in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. It's evident that Creator/AlexGuinness had no idea the actual history there, but his performance is nuanced enough with a tint of sadness that the edited video is heartbreaking.

More generally, the Kuleshov Effect is the basis of Soviet montage cinema, and is used in many many films since. The idea is that, by editing different things together, it is possible to create meanings that didn't exist in either of the images put together - constructing 'sentences' and 'texts' out of film.

* An edited Franchise/StarWars video made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN74bOubUug its way around social media]], combining footage from Film/ANewHope where Obi-Wan talks to Luke about his father Anakin, and showing Anakin's fall in Film/RevengeOfTheSith. It's evident that Alex Guinness had no idea the actual history there, but his performance is nuanced enough with a tint of sadness that the edited video is heartbreaking.

* Though modern usage is not exclusively in this manner, it is useful for cases where the "actor" is inanimate. In ''[[TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', HAL "displays" a broad range of emotions through being an unreadable red camera lens.

* Most films from the Soviet era prior to the forced implementation of 'Soviet Realism' in cinema by Stalin. These include venerable classics like ''Film/TheBattleshipPotemkin'' and ''Film/ManWithAMovieCamera''

* ''Film/RearWindow'' extensively uses this trope to spend whole scenes switching back and forth between Jimmy Stewart and what he sees through his window. In one sequence he stares out his window as the focus of the scene switches between several of his neighbors who have very different emotions in their scenarios. His only reaction is to ultimately raise his glass to one of them. Scramble the different window scenes, and the tone changes greatly. Stewart actually complained that Hitchcock used the editing of the film in general to create a different performance than the one that was given. This was a common complaint of the actors: that Hitchcock wouldn't let them act.
* ''ComicBook/TomStrong'' makes it work in a comic book, with Pneuman, a robot who we're ''expressively told'' has the emotional capacity of a tea kettle, who still manages to communicate powerful emotion using a face with no moving parts, shown from the right angles in the right light.

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* ''RearWindow'' extensively uses this trope to spend whole scenes switching back and forth between Jimmy Stewart and what he sees through his window. In one sequence he stares out his window as the focus of the scene switches between several of his neighbors who have very different emotions in their scenarios. His only reaction is to ultimately raise his glass to one of them. Scramble the different window scenes, and the tone changes greatly. Stewart actually complained that Hitchcock used the editing of the film in general to create a different performance than the one that was given. This was a common complaint of the actors: that Hitchcock wouldn't let them act.

* Used frequently in ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'' with the Statue of Ganesh, who contrives to be very expressive for a stone statue in much the same way as the ''TomStrong'' example above.

* ''TomStrong'' makes it work in a comic book, with Pneuman, a robot who we're ''expressively told'' has the emotional capacity of a tea kettle, who still manages to communicate powerful emotion using a face with no moving parts, shown from the right angles in the right light.

* The classic "Demon in a Bottle" issue of ''IronMan'' (#128) managed to make the main character's helmet look tormented by showing it at a particular [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iron_Man_128.jpg angle]].

* {{Machinima}} takes advantage of this trope due to the inability to pose the characters' faces, or even see their faces at all.

* Used in the twelfth episode of MysteryScienceTheatre3000's fifth season; the scene is a comical homage to the lip-reading scene from ''[[TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey,]]'' with Gypsy taking the place of Hal.

* Most films from the Soviet era prior to the forced implementation of 'Soviet Realism' in cinema by Stalin. These include venerable classics like ''The Battleship Potemkin'' and ''The Man with a Movie Camera''

* The infamous shower scene from ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' is often used as an example of this trope. After watching it, everyone immediately understands that Janet Leigh's character has been stabbed to death, but if you slow it down, only three frames actually show a knife piercing flesh (this is fast enough to count as subliminal messaging). The audience's understanding of what has taken place comes entirely from the way the images and sound are arranged, not from the actual content.

* C-3PO in the ''StarWars'' films, most notably ''ANewHope'' which has his biggest role. His face is deliberately completely neutral and expressionless, and Anthony Daniels doesn't over-emote with his body to compensate; but he manages to be a convincing [[TheWoobie Woobie]]. R2-D2 is even more difficult, with nothing resembling a face and virtually no movement other than rolling around. Yet between Daniels' vocal performance and Ben Burtt's synthesis of R2's "voice", they manage to carry the original movie — we barely even see the human characters in the first reel. Darth Vader counts too, for the same reason. Helps if you're voiced by Creator/JamesEarlJones.

* C-3PO in the ''StarWars'' films, most notably ''ANewHope'' which has his biggest role. His face is deliberately completely neutral and expressionless, and Anthony Daniels doesn't over-emote with his body to compensate; but he manages to be a convincing [[TheWoobie Woobie]]. R2-D2 is even more difficult, with nothing resembling a face and virtually no movement other than rolling around. Yet between Daniels' vocal performance and Ben Burtt's synthesis of R2's "voice", they manage to carry the original movie — we barely even see the human characters in the first reel.
** Darth Vader arguably counts too, for the same reason. Helps if you're voiced by Creator/JamesEarlJones.

* ''RearWindow'' extensively uses this trope to spend whole scenes switching back and forth between Jimmy Stewart and what he sees through his window. In one sequence he stares out his window as the focus of the scene switches between several of his neighbors who have very different emotions in their scenarios. His only reaction is to ultimately raise his glass to one of them. Scramble the different window scenes, and the tone changes greatly.
** Stewart actually complained that Hitchcock used the editing of the film in general to create a different performance than the one that was given. This was a common complaint of the actors: that Hitchcock wouldn't let them act.

** Darth Vader arguably counts too, for the same reason. Helps if you're voiced by JamesEarlJones.

** Stewart actually complained that Hitchcock used the editing of the film in general to create a different performance than the one that was given.

* The infamous shower scene from ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' is often used as an example of this trope. After watching it, everyone immediately understands that Janet Leigh's character has been stabbed to death, but if you slow it down, only three frames actually show a knife piercing human flesh (this is fast enough to count as subliminal messaging). The audience's understanding of what has taken place comes entirely from the way the images and sound are arranged, not from the actual content.

More generally, the Kuleshov Effect is the basis of Soviet montage cinema, and is used in many many films since. The idea is that, by editing different things together, it is possible to create meanings that didn't exist in either of the images put together - constructing 'sentences' and 'texts' out of film.

* The infamous shower scene from ''{{Psycho}}'' is often used as an example of this trope. After watching it, everyone immediately understands that Janet Leigh's character has been stabbed to death, but if you slow it down, only three frames actually show a knife piercing human flesh (this is fast enough to count as subliminal messaging). The audience's understanding of what has taken place comes entirely from the way the images and sound are arranged, not from the actual content.

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More generally, the Kuleshov Effect is the basis of Soviet montage cinema, and is used in many many films since. The idea is that, by editing different things together, it is possible to create meanings that didn't exist in either of the images put together - constructing 'sentences' and 'texts' out of film. The more general application of these principles is known as DialecticMontage or SovietMontageTheory.