A Filmmaker's Guide to: Motifs

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Motifs

What are they?

Motifs are repeated symbols or ideas that fall into some kind of pattern as they are relative to either a particular character or a particular aspect of the plot.

Let's have a look at an example in literature:

In the book "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, each and every time that the youthfulness of Dorian Gray becomes the central point of conversation, flowers are normally seen or, in some cases, Dorian himself is compared to a flower. With the approaching conversation that is had between Dorian and Henry in Chapter Two, the book warns us of Henry's influence by having the smell of roses, the lilacs and other plants and flowers in Basil's garden having some sort of place. When Henry and Dorian sit down to discuss his youth, there are several mentions of flowers and plants. As we move through the book, we see more mentions of flowers and plants as Dorian becomes more focused on his own youth. So we can honestly say that flowers and plants are motifs for concentration on Dorian Gray's youth.

Other books which contain some great uses of motifs that you can check out are:

• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• Maus by Art Spiegelman

What about in film?

In film, motifs are used in pretty much the same way they are used in literature. They are used to denote and pattern themes, ideas and perpetuate this symbol that is linked to a particular character or aspect of the plot/conflict which the narrative centres around. Let us take a look at some films that include motifs of character:

• Inception - the dreidel
• Requiem for a Dream - the red dress
• There Will Be Blood - the child
• A Clockwork Orange - the milk
• American Psycho - cellphones and business cards
• Fight Club - soap
• Citizen Kane - newspapers and photographs
• Interview with the Vampire - candles
• The Prestige - top hats
• The Sixth Sense - the cold

When a motif is used in a film, normally it is used with some major purpose that comes back in order to give us some sort of message. The motifs always have a purpose and if they don't then they should not serve the purpose of motifs or they just are not motifs at all. Such as: the dreidel in "Inception" is possibly the easiest motif to recognise because even the characters in the film know it is a motif for reality.

Let us now have a look at some further reading in order to understand this a little bit further than just our example here.

Further Reading:

• Cartmell, D (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen. UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Clare, R (2018). The Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace. UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Connor, S (2004). The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism. UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Herman, D (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. UK: Cambridge University Press
• Walker, M (2014). Hitchcock's Motifs. Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.