When Nietzsche Wept
| When Nietzsche Wept | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Pinchas Perry |
| Produced by | Pinchas Perry |
| Written by | Pinchas Perry |
| Based on |
When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom |
| Starring |
Armand Assante Ben Cross Katheryn Winnick Michal Yannai Jamie Elman Ivaylo Brusovski |
| Music by | Sharon Farber |
| Cinematography | Georgi Nikolov |
| Edited by | David Jakubovic |
| Distributed by | First Look International |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 min. |
| Country | Bulgaria United States |
| Language | English |
When Nietzsche Wept is a 2007 independent American drama film directed by Pinchas Perry and starring Armand Assante, Ben Cross and Katheryn Winnick. It is based on the homonymous novel by Irvin D. Yalom. It was filmed in Bulgaria.
The film opens with the Russian-born novelist—who eventually became a member of Freud's 'Vienna Circle'-- Lou Andreas-Salome (Katheryn Winnick) who had an unconsummated (Platonic) 'love affair' with German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (Armand Assante), and to whom he allegedly proposed in 1882 (although whether her claims are true is very much up for debate) writing a letter to Dr Josef Breuer (Ben Cross), after hearing of his newly developed talking cure (Breuer was a friend of Sigmund Freud (Jamie Elman), who also appears in the story, and one of the influential fathers of psychoanalysis.). The two meet, and a reluctant and troubled Breuer agrees to Salome's plan; to cure the intense migraine attacks that plague Nietzsche, and at the same time, without his knowing, cure the despair that her refusal of marriage has inflicted upon him.
Salome has persuaded Franz Overbeck (Nietzsche's friend) to send him to Breuer, however, Nietzsche offers no support to Breuer, so the course of treatment must end. In a chilling parallel, an encounter with a mistreated horse causes Nietzsche to redeem his appointment with Breuer (Nietzsche finally went mad after stopping a man from whipping a horse using his own body, before breaking down in tears and descending into insanity). Nietzsche later visits a whorehouse, where he has another attack of migraine, exacerbated by the overuse of a sleeping draught. Nietzsche decides that he will, instead of pursuing treatment, leave for Basel. Meanwhile, an up-and-coming psychologist Sigmund Freud, friend of Josef and Mathilde Breuer, suggests that if Breuer was to make some confession to Nietzsche, he may stop seeing any positive sentiment shown as being a bid for power, and indulge in confessions of his own.
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Wikipedia