{"id":97397,"date":"2020-10-25T23:16:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T20:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tim-heidecker-melancholia-and-the-comfort-in-facing-the-end\/"},"modified":"2020-10-25T23:16:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T20:16:37","slug":"tim-heidecker-melancholia-and-the-comfort-in-facing-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tim-heidecker-melancholia-and-the-comfort-in-facing-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tim Heidecker, &#8216;Melancholia,&#8217; and the Comfort in Facing the End"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Tim Heidecker, &#8216;Melancholia,&#8217; and the Comfort in Facing the End<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.7-->\u201cI\u2019m forty-four and starting to feel mid-life anxiety: mortality is actually feeling real,\u201d <strong>Tim Heidecker<\/strong> reflects <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2020\/music\/news\/tim-heidecker-weyes-blood-fear-of-death-1234749556\/\">in an interview with Variety<\/a> promoting his new indie rock album, <em>Fear of Death<\/em>. \u201cI have kids now and I just start thinking dumb shit: \u2018<em>I might not know my kids\u2019 grandchildren.\u2019 <\/em>It\u2019s a waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continues: \u201cBut death can also be very funny and absurd. It can be ridiculous. It\u2019s something that\u2019s going to h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>en to everybody, as far as we know. There\u2019s just a black void waiting down the road, and we\u2019re all walkin\u2019 towards it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heidecker is no stranger to life\u2019s little absurdities, having centered the bulk of his career on it. Although ostensibly a creative one-eighty for a co<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>n to suddenly dabble in music surrounding human mortality, Heidecker\u2019s previous collaborative ventures \u2013 including <em>Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!<\/em>, <em>On Cinema at the Cinema, <\/em>and <em>Tom Goes to the Mayor <\/em>\u2013 are absurdist, alt-comedy staples and proof of an artist fascinated with the surrealness of everyday life.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, Heidecker has simply further honed his examination of the irrationality of both life and death, albeit in a completely different format. Since 2016, he\u2019s quietly carved himself out a folk-rock path mostly separate from his comedy. And his latest contribution \u2013 a collaboration with fellow musicians Natalie Mering, the Lemon Twigs, and others, and touching on topics like aging, nihilism, climate change, and capitalism \u2013 can\u2019t help but feel incredibly of this dark moment, and also somehow incredibly reassuring.<\/p>\n<p>Although recorded over a year ago, the album was released during an unprecedented time: when a pandemic has overwhelmed our planet and many of us can\u2019t help but think about death because of it. It\u2019s the album\u2019s upbeat, singular focus on something we humans in Western civilization positively revile in fixating on that creates an unlikely kind of relief towards it \u2014 and just when we need it the most.<\/p>\n<p>This is not dissimilar to the effect of <strong>Lars von Trier<\/strong>\u2019s apocalyptic existentialist film <strong><em>Melancholia<\/em><\/strong>. Following a woman, who is in a deep depression, and her family members as they each confront the impending collision of a planet that will wipe out Earth, <em>Melancholia <\/em>leads us through its story in three chapters by way of melancholic Justine (Kirsten Dunst). Beginning with Justine\u2019s disastrous, doomed wedding and following the discovery of a planet dubbed \u201cMelancholia\u201d that is hurtling towards Earth, the film reaches the eventual revelation that the massive celestial object \u2013 previously hidden behind the sun and thought to only be a \u201cfly-by\u201d \u2013 will indeed make contact and destroy us.<\/p>\n<p>Justine\u2019s debilitating malaise is seen as keeping her from functioning properly in society; her sister, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), however, is fully accustomed to the made-up expectations and rules of life. Claire and her husband, John (Kiefer Sutherland), consistently scold Justine for being late to and throwing off her wedding after-party itinerary, while Justine\u2019s inability to care is met with reproach. By the end of the film, Claire\u2019s devotion to the normalcy of life\u2019s manufactured rituals stunts her ability to cope with the end of the world \u2013 Justine, on the other hand, finds herself comfortably in a state of cool.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-358771\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/melancholia-dunst.jpg\" alt=\"Melancholia Dunst\" width=\"800\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/melancholia-dunst.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/melancholia-dunst-768x334.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>While the film is infamously dreary and dystopic, in its unwaveringly bleak denouement arises a surprising solace. In a recent, pandemic-centric piece for <em>The Atlantic<\/em>, author Mallika Rao <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/archive\/2020\/05\/watching-melancholia-during-pandemic\/611383\/\">discusses the implications of <em>Melancholia<\/em><\/a> and finding reassurance in impending doom \u2013 on how various philosophical and religious movements, from Buddhism to Stoicism, have their own panaceas to the poison of our collective fear of death.<\/p>\n<p>Rao writes, \u201cIn both cases, focus on a feared outcome is thought to prepare one for it, and indeed, can, perhaps counterintuitively, engender a higher state of joy than for someone who refuses to look fear in the face.\u201d In Justine\u2019s calm, she finds peace, that which has eluded her for the majority of the film. Claire, alternatively, becomes restless, tormented until the very end.<\/p>\n<p><em>Melancholia<\/em> was inspired by von Trier\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dfi.dk\/english\/only-redeeming-factor-world-ending\">own experience with deep depression.<\/a> Heidecker\u2019s conception of an album that acts as a kind of confrontation of a mid-life crisis, on the other hand, was not so intentional; it was just what he ended up writing about. \u201cSome of that wasn\u2019t really apparent right away,\u201d he says in an <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.undertheradarmag.com\/interviews\/tim_heidecker_on_fear_of_death\">interview with Under the Radar<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s only afterward that I see that there\u2019s a link with all this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the album\u2019s eponymous first single, Heidecker and Mering harmonize joyfully over Heidecker\u2019s latent nihilistic approach to existence \u2013 not wanting to leave the house, not seeing the point in having fun, lingering on until old age or otherwise consumes him and he\u2019s finally forced to let go. \u201cFear of death is keeping me alive\u201d he croons repeatedly on the track\u2019s buoyant chorus.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tim Heidecker \u2013 Fear of Death (Official Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6Ff53Vc-ZDc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He jokes in <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehook.com\/article\/music\/tim-heidecker-fear-of-death-interview\">another interview, with InsideHook,<\/a> about the counterbalance between his dark subject material and his catchy, simplistic chords (which he views as indicative of his limited musical prowess): \u201cI love that juxtaposition. I mean, a lot of people do that. I think Tom Petty\u2019s a good person who does that, having this sardonic dark subject matter, but there\u2019s a poppiness to it.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s less about the bubbly melodies of Heidecker\u2019s album when it comes to its effectiveness in finding comfort in death, and more about the lyrical turn of phrase. Heidecker doesn\u2019t beat around the bush in his global warming-centered song \u201cBackwards,\u201d ruminating on the hope his generation had held towards the once-bright future, and the hard days yet to come for young children still blissfully ignorant to environmental catastrophe.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, in this bleak admission springs an unlikely optimism. A topic as hastily avoided as death, the existential blow of climate change feels lessened when people are willing to talk about it, instead of pretending that it isn\u2019t really happening. One could view the unwillingness of some to admit that climate change is real as more symptomatic of fear than ignorance. The potential of climate change is terrifying, and to accept that it\u2019s real is harder than to continue to live one\u2019s life as if it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one wants to believe their daily activities are responsible for a global disaster that has already turned millions of people into climate refugees and killed scores of others,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/science\/how-your-brain-stops-you-from-taking-climate-change-seriously\">writes Nsikan Akpan for <em>PBS NewsHour<\/em><\/a>. The simple act of opening that dialogue on Heidecker\u2019s song offers a form of hope. Acceptance is the first step towards progress.<\/p>\n<p>Heidecker doesn\u2019t write in flowery metaphor or allegory \u2013 there\u2019s no cushion of gratuitous poeticism to shield the blow of reality. On \u201cNothing,\u201d he speaks bluntly on how humans will all die alone, that Heaven doesn\u2019t exist, and that these thoughts consistently overwhelm him as he tries to maintain normalcy in his occasionally glamorous lifestyle in the entertainment industry. \u201cShopping for a suit for the big premiere, nobody could tell me how I got here. Looking real good, but I\u2019m filled with fear,\u201d he admits on the track.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tim Heidecker \u2014 Nothing (Official Audio)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p9YEblmSKxY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Still, he doesn\u2019t want people to think he\u2019s an excessively morbid person: \u201cI don\u2019t go around thinking about dying all of the time, but that can be therapeutic to talk about or sing about,\u201d Heidecker says. And yet, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/how-thoughts-of-death-can_b_11366248?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGrhSzPJjrMkeNZf1RClbWJ5oK-WFw1pgXGz2_2OIglTxwQgMavLDCvuonVKO8cKgQdka-uMGMCmjz_6f0FxzTJzp_JFIgF6eYEXcHcTyQUjTihVKI8yy64wZZ-waV7hG1DWtGHJ2cuQqv0fajMFZjrnx76F4X6UOapy0JyJjhJV\">a 2016 HuffPost article<\/a> reveals that \u201cregular contemplation of death can lead to a deep experience of joy as old attachments and negative habits are released,\u201d a sentiment divulged by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche in <em>The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In the aforementioned <em>Atlantic<\/em> piece, Mallika Rao also discusses the calm that an anxiety-ridden friend of hers suddenly experienced during the pandemic \u2014 finding a sense of ease in knowing that the rest of the world felt the same way that she does on a day-to-day basis. It\u2019s yet another link between <em>Melancholia <\/em>and <em>Fear of Death<\/em>: a cultivated sense of community amidst chaos. Justine finds peace in a world where her malaise is rational; Heidecker creates a space where an openness towards mortality produces joy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI try to keep music a thing that gives me happiness,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/tim-heidecker-and-weyes-blood-interview-fear-of-death\/\">Heidecker explains to Pitchfock<\/a>, and <em>Fear of Death <\/em>certainly does just that. On songs with lyrics that reference our \u201cimminent death\u201d and the fading memory of our individual existence over centuries, is inescapable beauty. The album becomes a microcosm of life itself. In the small amount of time we\u2019ve been given, we endure love, loss, growth, change, ugliness, and agony, but to have experienced it is a gift, one we experience together.<\/p>\n<p>In the final stretch of the planet Melancholia\u2019s path towards a collision with Earth, Justine notices a change. The horses in her sister\u2019s stable, once wild in uncontrollable distress prior to the planet\u2019s first appearance, have gone silent. \u201cThere\u2019s something different,\u201d she says. \u201cThe horses, they\u2019ve calmed down.\u201d In the face of approaching death, what is there left to do?<\/p>\n<p>Claire cannot fathom a non-existent Earth, unsure of where her son Leo will grow up because of her doomed faith in the firmness of life. She tries to take Leo and run off to a safe place that simply doesn\u2019t exist, and her difficulty in accepting her inescapable demise only makes things worse for her. Her astronomer husband, John, though initially full of rationality, commits a quick suicide immediately after realizing that the calculations of his revered scientists were incorrect, and Melancholia will indeed destroy Earth.<\/p>\n<p>But Justine, in her depressive haze almost prepared her entire life for a situation such as this, does not look away, panic, or overwhelm herself. Even as Melancholia hurtles towards Earth, Claire writhes and squirms on the ground while Justine sits serenely beside her, before the planet obliterates them and everything they ever knew. Justine takes it all in, relishing it, embracing that which will take her life away.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-358770\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/melancholia-von-trier.jpg\" alt=\"Melancholia Von Trier\" width=\"800\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/melancholia-von-trier.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/melancholia-von-trier-768x351.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Although Justine is the only character presented with the perspective of having a genuine lack of fear, there is still a sense of overall calmness in the film\u2019s gloomy completion. \u201cPlease don\u2019t be afraid,\u201d she had urged Leo, in one of their last moments alive together, and in togetherness is exactly what they are. Leo and Justine build a makeshift \u201cmagic cave\u201d from branches in the woods, which they place in the yard in front of Claire\u2019s massive house for the three of them to sit under, as they watch Melancholia plunge toward them. The camera opens into a gorgeous wide shot, encompassing their three tiny figures at the center of the frame while the planet rapidly engulfs the rest, taking over the screen, swallowing them up. It is beautiful and bittersweet. It is the end<\/p>\n<p>Heidecker has a fear of death, but he created an album that acts as a celebration of life \u2013 perhaps best personified in his major key cover of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cLet it Be.\u201d The shift in chords turns the iconic, meditative ballad about accepting loss into a jubilant folk song, preluding the album\u2019s final two tracks: one about loving someone unconditionally, the other a melancholic reflection on the ephemeral nature of human existence.<\/p>\n<p>The final triad of songs is emblematic of what feels like Heidecker\u2019s personal conclusion on life and death. The big black void waiting for us down the end of the road is far less imminent than a rogue planet on a crash course for Earth, but a crash course for our lives is undaunted, nonetheless. What else can we do but let it be?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Let It Be\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NnGNA4UzK6E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/tim-heidecker-fear-of-death-and-melancholia\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=tim-heidecker-fear-of-death-and-melancholia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Tim Heidecker, &#8216;Melancholia,&#8217; and the Comfort in Facing the End&#8221; \u201cI\u2019m forty-four and starting to feel mid-life anxiety: mortality is actually feeling real,\u201d Tim Heidecker reflects in an interview with Variety promoting his new indie rock album, Fear of Death. \u201cI have kids now and I just start thinking dumb shit: \u2018I might not know&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/tim-heidecker-fear-of-death.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[24175,72699,77155,56415],"class_list":["post-97397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-death","tag-lars-von-trier","tag-melancholia","tag-tim-heidecker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}