24 Frames Per Second of Death

Mulvey, well-known to cinephiles and theorists for her in-depth work, confronts us with disturbing questions and comments in "Death 24x a Second": What has photography and cinema changed in our relationship with death? What is the impact of cinema on our perception of time? Starting with such provocative questions, Mulvey delves into films by blending psychoanalysis and cinema, examining directors and types of viewers. "Death 24x a Second" offers a challenging, thought-provoking, and productive reading experience from beginning to end. "Stillness gives way to movement; movement combines with the recording of narrative time, only to be fragmented again with the return to stasis and indexical recording, but only for this. Not only do the uncanny properties of the photographic index persist; there is also a sharper sense here: Time is elusive, and in cinema, 'time that imitates life' returns increasingly obviously 'bearing the touches of death.'"