Book Review: When Nietzsche Wept

It was during our conversation that he alerted me to the fact that his first novel, When Nietzsche Wept, had just been turned into a film. What did he think of it, I asked. The gist of his reply was: 'They did the best they could, given the limits of the budget and the actors.'

Ben Cross plays Josef Breuer, Katheryn Winnick plays Lou Salome. Michal Yannai plays Bertha (Anna O.). And Jamie Elman plays the young Sigmund Freud. Uhm.

I was intrigued enough to purchase the DVD. I had read When Nietzsche Wept when it was published in the UK in 1990 and, though I can't say I'd 'loved' it, I'd thoroughly enjoyed it, not least because as a work of 'historical fiction' it played by the rules of the game by ensuring that dates and events coincided with what 'actual' history, or at least could have occurred within its boundaries. I also thought that the characters of Nietzsche, Lou Andreas-Salome and Josef Breuer were exceedingly well-developed and three-dimensional. Freud, I wasn't so sure about, but then his role in the drama was somewhat peripheral.

Like the novel, the film's basic plot is this: Lou Andreas-Salome, Nietzsche's platonic lover, is deeply concerned about his mental state. She meets with Josef Breuer in order to convince Breuer to take on Nietzsche as a patient. Breuer reluctantly agrees, but the 'talking cure' goes nowhere until Breuer hits upon the brilliant idea that the way to treat Nietzsche is by getting Nietzsche to 'treat' Breuer as his patient.

As a novel, it works wonderfully - especially for those readers who are therapeutically informed. Yalom keeps his eye on the story proper, but still finds interesting ways to raise interesting questions about the whole enterprise of therapy. As a film, many of these 'asides' are minimised, if not entirely eliminated. Instead, it 'sexes up' the story and the various romantic relationships contained within it. It also emphasises a number of 'symbolic' fantasy passages that are, frankly, somewhat hokey.

Thinking about, and re-viewing, the film for this review, I was struck by the thought that Nietzsche has very rarely been portrayed on the screen. In fact, the only other portrayal of him that I could think of was in an obscure Italian film, Beyond Good And Evil, directed by Liliana Cavani in 1977 which I chanced upon in the early days of VHS video rental shops and which has since all but disappeared from view and consciousness. Actually, the actor, Armand Assante, who plays Nietzsche in When Nietzsche Wept does a reasonable job of it. He plays down the histrionics and doesn't keep playing with his bushy moustache just to 'emote' what a great thinker he is, as I recall was the case with the actor playing Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil.

So.... I know that there are a great many people - including members of this Society - who loved reading When Nietzsche Wept. Are they likely, as Point 2 above proposes, to be disappointed by its film version? Almost certainly, yes. But perhaps not quite so disappointed as they might fear. I think that Yalom's own summation is pretty accurate.

As I see it, what's best about the film, in the end, is that it reminds you of how much you enjoyed the book and that a second (or whatever number) reading might be a better option.

Ernesto Spinelli