He 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.

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

In 1911 Vladimir Kuleshov died; three years later Lev and his mother moved to Moscow where his elder brother was studying and working as an engineer.

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

[5] Inspired by American films such as The Birth of a Nation[6] and lectures by Vladimir Gardin,[5] Kuleshov developed a philosophy of editing and montage, which he considered as fundamental to cinema as harmony was to music.

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

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

Among his other notable students were Vsevolod Pudovkin, Boris Barnet, Mikhail Romm, Sergey Komarov, Porfiri Podobed, Vladimir Fogel and Aleksandra Khokhlova who became his wife.