The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is an animated short film by Aleksandr Petrov. It is based on a short story by Dostoevsky, and tells the tale of a suicidal nihilist who has a near death experience. Whether he survives his own suicide attempt, or is merely dreaming while napping on a train, the ridiculous man has a vision of paradise, in which a young girl he neglected to help on the street is making sand castles on an idyllic beach. He tries to reach her, but drowns in the sand.
The vision continues, and he observes the fall from grace of a utopian society into violence and decay. Dogs that were once his friend now growl at him, spiders bite, and the neighbors don cow skulls and go on a drunken rampage, for which they are rewarded with the death penalty. The society devolves into senseless, degenerate madness, and the ridiculous man finds that his suicidal ideations have returned, only now they crumble in his hands, and create a tsunami of sand that drowns the little girl on the beach, destroying not only her sand castle, but the society in which she lives.
The ridiculous man awakens from the vision, and is grateful for his life. He embraces a poor child on the train. Relieved to be alive, and having found peace in spite of his inner, ridiculous turmoil, the ridiculous man realizes the absurdity of the nihilistic weight he has been carrying all his life. He takes the poor girl by the hand, and they fade to black while passing under a bleak, but peaceful, streetlight.
The music video is divided into 3 parts: "Don't Wake Me Up," which describes the reluctance of the ridiculous man to wake up from his own, self-imposed nightmare, "Cold Dead Night," which encompasses both the idyllic dream and its devolution into degeneracy and war, and "All The Pretty Horses," in which the ridiculous man finds peace, in spite of the conflicting tendencies toward both heaven and hell, raging like a crazy dream inside him.
Thanks for listening.
Cold Dead Night
It's a cold dead night
down by the water
We're wrapped up warm
and the newspaper said
you'd never repent
It's a cold dead night
down by the water
The fishing boats
are chained to the docks
just like two lovers holding hands,
and the moon is as golden as wine
on a cold dead night
down by the water
She wants to get high
but she lays her head
on my shoulder instead
and we sleep
on a cold dead night
I never want to wake up again!
The circus is in town
all the angels
with crosses tattooed on their wings
sing along with the dogs
limping on wooden legs
we carve our initials
into a rotten log
and throw it on the fire
and watch it burn
all night
It's a cold dead night
down by the water
The skeleton man
breaks all his bones
one by one
and dances with a rope around his neck
so his feet never touch the ground
and goes to sleep
under a blanket of skin
dried in the sun
on a cold dead night
down by the water
I never want to wake up again!
Paper slippers
and drops of blood
my clothes are torn
and I'm strapped to this
hospital bed
I lost my mind
on a cold dead night
I'll be leaving it behind
this morning,
but you can tell the nurses
on the graveyard shift
that I'll be coming back someday
and I won't be sleeping on the street
I don't know where I'm going
as long as it's away
from this fucking paradise,
these sun-tanned antichrists,
these air-conditioned forests
are much too cold
for me
©1999 Nathan Payne
