A critic can solve interpretive problems in terms of the text's variety, the unity of form and content, and the viewer's experience of the film. A critic obtains diachronic coherence by the practice of motif analysis. Motif-tracing is a basic skill of every critic. The motif is central to a films unifying strategies.
Motifs allow one to trace changes in semantic fields.
Motifs thus carry meaning. Motifs that are situated within a temporal schema of textual form result in the film as trajectory. The text will reveal a progression which organizes semantic fields as well as time and space. A critics goal is to treat a film's pattern as a series of segments which can be compared or connected. A critic can thus employ two heuristics.1.