Signs and Meaning in the Cinema

One essential corollary of the theory as it has been developed is the discovery that the defining characteristics of an author’s work are not necessarily those which are most readily apparent. The purpose of criticism thus becomes to uncover behind the superficial contrasts of subject and treatment a hard core of basic and often recondite motifs. The pattern formed by these motifs ... is what gives an author’s work its particular structure, both defining it internally and distinguishing one body of work from another.

art which combines and incorporates others, which operates on different sensory bands, different channels, using different codes and modes of expression.