Friedrich Nietzsche was perhaps the greatest thinker of the 19th century. He was one of the last great philosopher's, and his theories in metaphysics, aesthetics, and ethics are still influential to this day. Nietzsche also led a very interesting personal life, full of interesting relationships with other famous figures in history. In the right hands, a film about Nietzsche's life would be fantastic. His troubled relationships with Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wagner, his sister, and his eventual mental collapse make for a most intriguing story about a most intriguing man. However, 2007's When Nietzsche Wept is not that film.
Similar to Amadeus, When Nietzsche Wept isn't really about the titular character. In this case, Salieri is replaced with Josef Breuer, an Austrian physician who is tasked with treating Nietzsche of his frequent migraines and more secretly his psychological problems. The two men end up treating each other by sharing their stories of love sickness, thus helping them get beyond their troubled relationships with women. Also, for some reason, Sigmund Freud is there.
However, the film takes a lot of license in historical events, and leaves out A LOT of what should be included in a film with Nietzsche in it. The most glaring is the way the film suggests that Freud got the idea of psychoanalysis from Nietzsche, including the ideas of having the patient lie on a couch and the Oedipus complex. There is simply no historical basis to believe that these are originally Nietzsche's ideas. The film also neglects to mention Richard Wagner's wife, who Nietzsche had been deeply in love with before he fell in love with Lou Salome, Nietzsche's lost lover in the film. Nietzsche's sister is also not mentioned at all in this movie. Nietzsche's sister is easily one of the most influential people in his life. He despised her terribly, and after his mental collapse, she completely edited his works to make them sound like Nazi ideology. The film also bears no mention of either Schopenhauer, Plato, or Kant, the three philosophers who influenced Nietzsche the most.
The film does include mentions of some of Nietzsche's philosophy. We here him proclaim that God is dead, and a brief, BRIEF, explanation of his concept of an Ubermensch. However, we never really get into the meat an potatoes of his theories. He never discusses how to live is to suffer, but to overcome some suffering gives us a sense of achievement which makes life worth living. A clearer explanation of this would've helped explain the motivations of the characters in the second act when Breuer and Nietzsche are working through their despair. The film also gives a quick mention of Nietzsche's falling out with Richard Wagner, but doesn't explain to us why he was drawn Wagner in the first place which would've explained why the failure of this relationship was so devastating to Nietzsche. The film also includes the famous moment when Nietzsche collapses trying to protect a horse from being whipped. In reality, this occurs in Italy and Nietzsche loses his mind afterward. In the movie this happens in Vienna and nothing really happens to Nietzsche. The films does, at first, appear to show Nietzsche's mental collapse in a scene where he is conducting an orchestra only he can see and hear, but later in the film he is perfectly sane.
The production quality of this film is roughly equal to that of a cheap television mini-series. The camera work is sloppy and the editing is often painful. For the most part the acting is atrocious, the only bright spot being Armand Assante as Nietzsche. The dialogue in the second act is entertaining in an Aaron Sorkin kind of way, but the first and third acts drag the movie down. There are also several ridiculous dream sequences that are unnecessary, and seriously damage the serious tone of the film. Nietzsche's life is the perfect fodder for a film, it is a shame that this film fails to capitalize on such immense potential.
Rating: 3/10 - Sinful
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