When Nietzsche Wept (German: Als Nietzsche Weinte) is a 2007 American art drama film directed by Pinchas Perry and starring Armand Assante, Ben Cross and Katheryn Winnick. It is based on the novel of the same name by Irvin D. Yalom. It was filmed in Bulgaria.

Plot

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.