Death | Drive | Image: Bill Morrison's "Tributes – Pulse: A Requiem for the 20th Century"

Picking up on the concept of death-drive, as discussed by Freud and Lacan, this essay examines the ways in which the lm Tributes–Pulse: A Requiem for the 20th Century uses decomposing lm material, not as a nal state, but rather as a new beginning for cinema. Similar to the death-drive’s capacity to transcend the common dichotomy of life and death, Morrison’s lm keeps the disintegrating images alive in their process of dying. Dying proves to be the very opposite of death: not some ultimate break but an active process, which can be prolonged, paused, and extended into eternity. The title’s ‘pulse’ can be understood, as the irresistible, undead beat of the drive itself, which has no other goal than its own circular movement.