History Main / KuleshovEffect

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': Used in the "Mitchell" episode from season 5; the scene where Gypsy overhears the Mads' plan to kill their new intern Mike is a comical homage to the lip-reading scene from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', with Gypsy taking the place of Hal.

* Many [[MemeticMutation memes]] are ultimately extremely out of context pictures that when juxtaposed against a certain caption or accompanying image, completely turns into something other than its original intent or context. Take for example the "[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/me-explaining-to-my-mom Me explaining to my mom]]" meme. Both pictures are completely unrelated to each other in origin, the left featuring a very emotional Quenlin Blackwell venting while the right is of Ms. Juicy from ''Little Women: Atlanta'' just watching TV on a couch with a neutral expression. Put them together and you suddenly get a young woman desperately trying to explain something in vain to an older woman who was just minding her own business and very likely has no vested interest or even knowledge about what she's talking about.

** Likewise, CampaignComic ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' uses stills from Star Wars movies to tell a completely different, parodic story. Thus, acting that was originally meant to express pain or suffering turn into exhasperation - for instance, Leia's struggle to get free from Jabba's chain is presented as her "player's" [[SuckinessIsPainful annoyance at a]] [[IncrediblyLamePun pun]].

* Used in the twelfth episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'''s fifth season; the scene is a comical homage to the lip-reading scene from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', with Gypsy taking the place of Hal.

* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'' received praise for its mastery of this film technique. [[spoiler: We ''assume'' that they are {{flashback}}s informing us of Hannah's death and that Louise is sleepwalking through life in a deep depression and trying to recover from it. She isn't; her daughter won't be born until ''after'' the events of the film. Louise has become UnstuckInTime and is experiencing those events exactly as we are, out of order]].

** A SpriteComic works on the same principal, except this time, the only purpose the sprites serve is to tell the story. You'd be surprised at how much mileage you can get out of 5 or so poses.

* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'' received praise for its mastery of this film technique. [[spoiler: We ''assume'' that they are {{flashback}}s informing us of Hannah's death and that Louise is sleepwalking through life in a deep depression and trying to recover from it. She isn't; her daughter won't be born until ''after'' the events of the film, and Louise is experiencing [[FlashForward Flashforwards]]]].

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

** The most well known example is the reveal that Vader is Luke's father, when in ''Film/ANewHope'', Obi-Wan Kenobi had told Luke that they were two separate characters, and that Vader killed Anakin Skywalker. Lucas after writing the twist for ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', banked on Creator/AlecGuinness subtle performance where Obi-Wan visibly struggled to talk about Anakin, communicating both warmth and regret, which Guinness probably intended to communicate his character's grief at losing a war buddy, but after the retcon alluded to a deeper revelation, which in the process also made Obi-Wan a more complex character than the kindly MentorArchetype of the first film. It also added new meaning to Obi-Wan and Vader's duel at the Death-Star.
** After Lucas sold the franchise to Disney, the Anthology prequels, ''Film/RogueOne'' and ''Film/{{Solo}}'' also re-frame scenes in ''Film/ANewHope''.
*** At the end of ''Rogue One'', Vader saw Princess Leia's ship detaching from the rebel ship he had boarded and massacred, seeing it enter hyperspace. At the start of ''A New Hope'', when Vader boards her ship, Leia said she's on a diplomatic mission from Alderaan. Before that scene came off as Leia posing as a spy and presenting a diplomatic cover, and Vader pushing his weight to try and intimidate her. Now it comes across as Leia [[RefugeInAudacity brazenly and audaciously]] bluffing at Vader as a way to insult him, while Vader's original imperious reply comes off as furious disbelief.
*** In ''A New Hope'', when Han Solo first meets Obi-Wan, he boasts that his ship achieved "the Kessel run in 12 parsecs". The script had indicated that this was Han's SnakeOilSalesman-like boast and exaggeration and that Obi-Wan didn't believe it. Creator/AlecGuinness by means of FacialDialogue indicates his own disbelief (namely a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk). ''Solo'' makes this scene into a literal boast where Han indeed achieves what he originally said he did, and as such the original scene now has Han come off as more dishonest and untrustworthy than he really is which ends up alluding to his eventual NeutralNoLonger climactic rescue of Luke.

* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'' received praise for its mastery of this film technique. [[spoiler: We ''assume'' that the scenes after we see Hannah die indicate that Louise is sleepwalking through life in a deep depression over her daughter's passing and trying to recover from it. She isn't; her daughter won't be born until ''after'' the events of the film, and Louise is experiencing [[FlashForward Flashforwards]]]].

* ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' similarly does this with Whirl (and later [[ComicBook/TransformersDarkCybertron Shockwave]]), very impressively since he's not only expressionless but [[CyberCyclops faceless]], too. Despite these limitations, under Alex Milne's pen, use of body language and careful posing still manages to make him one of the most expressive characters in the comic.

*** At the end of ''Rogue One'', Vader saw Princess Leia's ship detaching from the rebel ship he had boarded and massacred, seeing it enter hyperspace. At the start of ''A New Hope'', when Vader boards her ship, Leia said she's on a diplomatic mission from Alderaan. Before that scene came off as Leia posing as a spy and presenting a diplomatic cover, and Vader pushing his weight to try and intimidate her. Now it comes across as Leia [[RefugeInAudacity brazenly and audaciously]] bluffing at Vader as a way to insult him, while Vader's original imperious reply comes of as furious disbelief.

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

--> '''[[[https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/star-wars-dialogue-v-revision Neil Bahadur]]''': "Lucas’s re-edits are a remarkable Kuleshovian act on not single shots but [[SerialEscalation three whole films]]: each film’s primary function is altered...''Film/ANewHope'', a wacky adventure movie that is little more than a playground for technology, becomes a family soap opera in microcosm: [[YouAllShareMyStory Vader, Luke and Leia all cross paths and enter conflict all unaware that they are of the same family]]. ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''...takes on an immense pathos within Vader’s character--previously an abstract cipher/image of evil, we now see [[TragicVillain only a sad and pathetic man]] who only wants to see his son."

--> '''[[[[https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/star-wars-dialogue-v-revision Neil Bahadur]]''': "Lucas’s re-edits are a remarkable Kuleshovian act on not single shots but [[SerialEscalation three whole films]]: each film’s primary function is altered...''Film/ANewHope'', a wacky adventure movie that is little more than a playground for technology, becomes a family soap opera in microcosm: [[YouAllShareMyStory Vader, Luke and Leia all cross paths and enter conflict all unaware that they are of the same family]]. ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''...takes on an immense pathos within Vader’s character--previously an abstract cipher/image of evil, we now see [[TragicVillain only a sad and pathetic man]] who only wants to see his son."

* 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/AlecGuinness had no idea the actual history there, but his performance is nuanced enough with a tint of sadness that the edited video is heartbreaking.

* ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' similarly does this with Whirl (and later [[ComicBook/TransformersDarkCybertron Shockwave]], very impressively since he's not only expressionless but [[CyberCyclops faceless]], too. Despite these limitations, under Alex Milne's pen, use of body language and careful posing still manages to make him one of the most expressive characters in the comic.

* ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' similarly does this with Whirl (and later [[ComicBook/TransformersDarkCybertron Shockwave]], very impressively since he's not only expressionless but [[CyberClops faceless]], too. Despite these limitations, under Alex Milne's pen, use of body language and careful posing still manages to make him one of the most expressive characters in the comic.

* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'' received praise for its mastery of this film technique. [[spoiler: We ''assume'' that the scenes after we see Hannah die indicate that Louise is sleepwalking through life in a deep depression over her daughter's passing and trying to recover from it. She isn't.]]

* The famous 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.

* 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/{{Arrival}}'' received praise for its mastery of this film technique. [[spoiler: We ''assume'' that the scenes after we see Hannah die that Louise is sleepwalking through life in a deep depression over her daughter's passing and trying to recover from it. She isn't.]]