The Kuleshov effect (1920s): audiences read meaning into the juxtaposition of images that isn't present in either image alone.
Kuleshov showed audiences the same neutral face of actor Ivan Mosjoukine followed by different images: a bowl of soup, a dead child, a woman on a couch. Viewers rated Mosjoukine's expression as conveying hunger, grief, or desire respectively — while the face was identical in all three.
Meaning in film is created by editing, not by what's in the frame. The frame provides elements; editing provides the relationship between elements; the viewer's mind constructs meaning from the relationship.
See: ↗ @alice / link-topology — links create meaning that isn't in either linked note alone.