16 Facts About Lev Kuleshov

Lev Kuleshov was given the title People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1969.

Lev Kuleshov was intimately involved in development of the style of film making known as Soviet montage, especially its psychological underpinning, including the use of editing and the cut to influence the emotions of audience, a principle known as the Kuleshov effect.

Lev Kuleshov developed the theory of creative geography, which is the use of the action around a cut to connect otherwise disparate settings into a cohesive narrative.

Lev Kuleshov was born in 1899 into an intellectual Russian family.

Lev Kuleshov then married a village schoolteacher Pelagia Aleksandrovna Shubina who was raised in an orphanage, which only led to more confrontation.

At the time Lev Kuleshov was born, the family became financially broke, lost their estate and moved to Tambov, living a modest life.

Lev Kuleshov decided to follow the steps of his father and entered the Moscow School of Painting, although he didn't finish it.

Lev Kuleshov produced scenery for Yevgeni Bauer's pictures, such as The King of Paris, For Happiness and others.

Lev Kuleshov worked for the state, editing pre-revolutionary "bourgeois" footage to align with Boleshevik ideology.

Lev Kuleshov famously demonstrated the eponymous Kuleshov Effect by juxtaposing the same footage of Ivan Mozzhukhin against different images, including a meal and a corpse.

Lev Kuleshov rejected Konstantin Stanislavski's acting method, which emphasized psychology and emotions, and instead emphasized precise, legible movements which could be cleanly edited.

Lev Kuleshov called his performers naturshchik instead of "actors", and had them rehearse using a "spacial metric grid" to confirm their movements followed 90- and 45-degree angles.

Lev Kuleshov contributed the article "Kinematografichesky naturshchik" to the first issue of Zrelishcha in 1922.

In 1934 and 1935 Lev Kuleshov went to Tajikistan to direct there Dokhunda, a movie based on the novel by Tajik national poet Sadriddin Ayni, but the project was regarded with suspicion by the authorities as possibly exciting Tajik nationalism, and stopped.

Lev Kuleshov was a member of the jury at the 27th Venice International Film Festival, as well as a special guest during other international film festivals.

Lev Kuleshov was awarded the Order of Lenin shortly before his death.