Kuleshov Effect: What It Is And How It Is Used In 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 expressed 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 over the years, many of which are based on or have contributed greatly to generating discoveries and research in many other areas. .
The study of the human mind is one of them. In this sense, it is possible to highlight research linked to the perception of visual stimuli, and even to the interpretation or elaboration that our mind makes of a set of images that are not necessarily linked to each other. A relevant example is the Kuleshov effect which we are going to talk about throughout this article.
The Kuleshov effect is a psychological phenomenon discovered in the cinematographic field of great relevance and which is linked to the interpretation and understanding by the viewer of the scenes they view based on the context that surrounds them.
Specifically, the effect in question states that the consecutive presentation of recording fragments or takes implies that the viewer carries out a joint interpretation in such a way that each image will not be evaluated separately but rather an integration will be carried out that will result in a different evaluation than the one that each one would have independently.
Kuleshov proposed that The perceived meaning of a given scene is elaborated based on the sequence of which it is a part, more than the image itself. In other words, in the Kuleshov effect it is established that the content of the scene or painting itself is not relevant, but what causes it to have meaning is its union with other paintings or scenes, in such a way that it generates meaning. a current in the form of a narrative.
The creation of the concept of the Kuleshov effect starts from the realization by an experiment carried out by the filmmaker Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov along with his disciples Vsevolod Illiarianovich Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein (the information of which would end up being revealed by Pudovkin and Kuleshov himself).
This experiment consisted of a combination of different recordings (shot separately) and a scene (always the same) of a close-up of the actor Iván Mozzhukhin with a completely neutral expression. A total of three combinations were made: in one of them the spectators were exposed to a combination of the actor’s neutral face with the appearance of a plate of soup, in another the face was followed by an image of a naked woman on a sofa and In the third, after the face, the image of a girl playing was seen.
These exhibitions gave rise to different interpretations of the actor’s face by the spectators despite the fact that the face that was shown to them was in all cases the same: those who saw the face associated with the bowl of soup linked the actor’s expression with hunger, those who saw the composition in which the image of a naked woman, viewers perceived lasciviousness 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, the experiment reflected that through different compositions different interpretations of the scenes could be extracted, depending on the type of stimuli that preceded or followed said scene.
Now, there is some controversy regarding whether this experiment was actually carried out given that there is no documentary evidence of the recordings, Lev Kuleshov having indicated that they were destroyed at the time of World War II. Likewise, there is an open debate between Kuleshov’s statements and those of Pudovkin: while, as we have indicated before, Kuleshov himself indicated that the scenes prior 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 with a shot of a woman in a coffin (in this case it was indicated that the viewer considered that the actor expressed sadness and self-absorption).
However, regardless of the veracity of this first original experiment, other authors and directors (including Hitchcock) have attempted to replicate similar experiments and have observed the existence of an influence of the montage carried out 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 an explanation on a psychological level: 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 giving meaning to their perception.
This derives from the fact that we are not mere passive entities that receive information from the environment but rather we are active agents that interact and generate their own meanings with respect to the world around them. Likewise, our expectations and previous experiences will shape the type of interpretation and the starting point based on which to evaluate the situation in question and construct the most relevant meanings.
For all this, today our knowledge of the Kuleshov effect is used when transmitting meaning in cinema, and it is understood that the editing process is another narrative tool, not a simple technical specialization lacking creativity. Editing, combining and cutting shots and scenes helps tell the story that the film’s authors intend to tell.
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 films being able to shoot scenes separately or even independently to later carry out a montage that allows enhancing the sensations of the spectators). ), the truth is that it can extend to many others.
For example, It has also been reflected in the literature, in such a way that reading a certain content causes us to interpret the following ones differently 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 daily lives, especially in the recognition of faces and facial expressions.
Some experiments have shown that the crossing or combination of affective contextual stimuli before or after the exposure of the image of a neutral face causes our interpretation and reaction to the face in question to differ to a certain extent, both at the behavioral level and at the brain level. : there is a tendency to value both the affective valence and 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 the exposure in question.
We must keep in mind that on a daily 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, gestures or tone and rhythm of the subject in question can mark us to a great extent and in fact can be considered contextual information.
