When Nietzsche Wept

Infobox Film
name = When Nietzsche Wept


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director = Pinchas Perry
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starring = Armand Assante, Ben Cross, Katheryn Winnick, Michal Yannai, Jamie Elman
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released = flagicon|Israel July 7, 2007
flagicon|USA December 4, 2007 (DVD)
runtime = 105 min.
country = USA
language = English
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imdb_id = 0760188

"When Nietzsche Wept" is an independent film released in 2007, starring Armand Assante, Ben Cross and Katheryn Winnick. The movie is based on a book of the same name by Irvin D. Yalom and was directed by Pinchas Perry.

The film follows the storyline of the book quite faithfully, although neither the book nor the movie is based entirely on reality. Although the main characters and some of the facts are true, the center piece of the novel (and of the movie), which was the therapeutic encounter of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and Austrian physician Josef Breuer never happened.

The film opens with the beautiful Russian-born Lou Salome (played by Katheryn Winnick), who had had a brief love affair with Nietzsche (played by 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 (played by Ben Cross), after hearing of his newly developed talking cure (Breuer was a friend of Sigmund Freud, who also appears in the story, and one of the influential fathers of psychoanalysis. The two meet, and a reluctant and troubled Breuer agree's to Salome's plan; to cure the intense migraine attacks that plague Nietzsche, and at the same time, without him knowing, cure the despair that her refusal of marriage has inflicted upon him.

Salome has persuaded Dr Overbeck (Nietzsche's physician) 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 persuing treatment, leave for Basel. Meanwhile, an up and coming 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.

So, next time the two meet, Breuer makes the suggestion that, whilst he treats Nietzsche's body, Nietzsche must "treat" Breuer of the despair that he feels after falling in love with one of his patients, Bertha Pappenheim (played by Michal Yannai), otherwise known as Anna O., a famous case which was discussed in a joint book by Breuer and Freud, later on.

The confessions lead to the two becoming open with each other, learning each other's way of life and finally the two becoming friends, but not before the film has explored a great deal of Nietzschean philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Bruer's anguish over his supposed unhappiness is explored by means of his highly symbol-laden dreams, thus showing the importance of interpretation as a stepping stone of what would constitute Freud's approach to psychoanalytic techniques.

Because of the supposed marriage proposal and the references to the book "The Gay Science", we can assume the film is set in 1882, not long before Nietzsche published his famed "Thus Spoke Zarathustra".

The film is host to a variety of famous faces of the day; Josef and Mathilde Breuer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Lou Andreas Salome, Sigmund Freud, Bertha Pappenheim, Paul Rée as well as references to Dr Overbeck, and the musical stylings of the notorious composer, Richard Wagner.

External links

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* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=340826 Trailer]