When Nietzsche Wept (2007)

This is just plainly disgusting. No regard for actual facts about the protagonist and no mind paid to his ideas whatsoever. Some reviewers have opined, that the novel on which this movie is based was okay or even good. I haven't read it, so I take their word for it. I dearly hope that it isn't anything like this abominable piece of crap though. Acting and setting leave a lot to be wished for, establishing context seems to be a very alien concept to the makers of this film. I usually do not comment on movies, but this one really ticked me off. Why this was even made is quite beyond me. Stay clear, neither informative nor entertaining so save your time and energy for better causes. ;)

This movie is surreal. Literally, it has a lot of surrealistic scenes to mess with your mind, but also the whole presentation is surreal because there are so many bizarre angles. At its heart, it's a sober portrayal of depression and humanity's discontent (so you'd think it would be slow & heavy). But mostly it's humorous, at times as silly as the movie "Airplane!". It also features historical references, but you can't help feeling that the writer is being deliberately playful, distorting facts right before our eyes with a wink and a smile. In all, I think it's an entertaining experience, especially if you don't take it too seriously.It definitely has the qualities of a period piece romp, like maybe "Casanova" (2005), "Molière" (2007) or one of my faves, "Impromptu" (1991) about Chopin. But "When Neitzsche Wept" has a more subtle tone which prevents me from saying it's intended to be a comedy like the others I mentioned. Also, don't expect a biopic because it's not really about any particular man so much as it's about everyman's internal struggle between passion (freedom) and logic (duty).This film takes a somewhat light-hearted approach to a very dark subject, and I think that's what makes it unusual and clever. It's entertaining and digestible, but also there are a few powerful monologues delivered by Neitzsche (Armand Assante) that I had to rewind and hear again because they seemed to appear out of nowhere. Then suddenly we're back to a crazy scene of a redhead woman in diapers jumping around a crib. Don't worry, it all makes sense; it's just... surreal!

Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud did work together and they did collaborate on a book about Anna O, who was most likely Bertha. Lou Salome did have relationships with Nietzsche and Freud and many others. All of these things are true.But, Breuer did not treat Nietzsche. That is in the author's (Irvin D. Yalom) imagination, and what a great imagination it was. The story makes a super philosopher seem human, with frailties that we all suffer. It also makes for an interesting story of how psychoanalysis came about. I can imagine that it really did develop this way as Breuer and Feud discovered what worked and what didn't. We see free association or "chimney sweeping" as Bertha called it, we certainly see transference, and much more as the discipline developed.Ben Cross was excellent, Armand Assante gave the best performance I have ever seen from him, Jamie Elman let us see Feud as a young man, Katheryn Winnick certainly makes me want to see her again, and Michal Yannai was delightful.A great period piece that will delight all who care about philosophy and psychology.

The first 20 minutes of this film are torture! I don't mean to disrespect anyone, however, the actress playing Lou Salome was awful. Perhaps that's why we saw so little of this character, I have a feeling scenes with her were cut dramatically (no pun intended). Also, the Dr's secretary suffered from a severe case of hamming it up. While the ideas & dialogues were interesting, and some of the acting was very good, it took much too long to get where it was going. Scenes are disjointed & there is a huge portion where we don't see the main character but there is no real explanation for this. The cinematography was not "brilliant" as someone here has suggested. The accents were more fake than a bad weave. To be honest, I have seen TV movies that were better than this, some of them starring Armand Assante. Go rent one of those!