Nico Icon (1995) Online

A fascinating look at a sad & mysterious woman whose music was a deep, dark gaze into the pit of existence. If you have never heard Nico, then by all means, you must see this film. Fans will love it regardless, but the uninitiated have the most to gain. The facts of her life are chronicled, but numerous attempts by friends & acquaintances to describe who Nico was are fruitless. One realizes by the end of the film that Nico was so elusive, much like her music, that attempts to describe who she was tend to reveal more about the speaker, than they do about Nico. Someone says that Nico, who had been a model first, always hated being complimented on her beauty. The speaker suggests that it must have been some German perversity. He then explains how she proceeded to continually attempt to make herself ugly. Another person says "No one loved Nico & Nico loved no one" - a haunting statement that points to the isolation that Nico experienced. When she was beautiful, she was adored, so she destroyed heself & watched (& cried beautiful melodies) as everyone in her life capitulated. One of the finest scenes in the film finds Nico's Aunt looking over pictures & press clippings of the girl she helped raise. She speaks of Nico in adoring terms, referring to her as a princess. We then see her listening to Nico & The Velvets, gazing into the sky, lightly singing along, then shedding tears. It is a striking scene, as a tight & proper, matronly German figure crosses the boundary to an underground youth culture, that is so divorced from her world, yet bridged by her love for Nico. A great documentary of a performer who was well ahead of her time.

Spoilers herein.

No one who survived that period can forget Nico, at least her voice in the midst of sounds that have come to define what heroin sounds like. She wasn't the only pretty face we saw get ravaged. But this was the only soul I know that did so as a deliberate act of art. At least the aura of Warhol claimed it such.

Was she a real musician? It doesn't matter to me, even if there were such a thing. She became part of my dream life, so is at least worth a revisit or two.

I waited to see this until I could see it with `Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind,' an equally insipid portrait, but of quite a different musician.

Both Joni and Nico were pretty blond singers, from the same era. Both had kids they had to give up. Both had lives with drugs and fellow male musicians. In fact, both were in New York at the same time.

Each had their own demons. But what different music! I'm not sure which was the greater artist: one gave her life to music while it was the inverse otherwise. Does passion matter! Was Jim Morrison a waste or a successful ride on an angry beast?

You won't get any of this from the dreary documentary alone. But if you were at all alive then, this effectively reminds.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This documentary is worth watching if you're interested in Nico or related subjects (my interest in the Velvet Underground is what got me to watch it, and VU are so important to modern music history that it's worth watching just for that), but it is seriously lacking in several respects.

First of all, the movie is only 67 minutes long and ends too abruptly. Another half-hour of more extensive interviews would have greatly strengthened the film. Maybe people like Lou Reed or the surviving members of The Doors simply refused to take part in the movie, but the absence of their opinions leaves definite holes in the story. In the film's defense, maybe there's just not much elaboration anyone can give about Nico--she was pretty, had a striking voice, and was a depressive junkie; that about sums up the impression I'm left with (which probably isn't all the film's fault!). But couldn't they have at least given us Lou Reed's take on Nico, even if it was only via anecdotes shared by others?

The creation of her solo songs & albums is very glossed-over. Suddenly Andy Warhol's crew is talking about hearing a single of Nico's--the viewer is left to wonder, "Well, when & how did that recording come about?!" We are shown pictures of her solo albums while clips of her songs are played, but that's about it--no real discussion of the circumstances surrounding the writing, recording, promotion, dates of release, etc. It's left unclear how much of the actual CREATION of those songs was done by Nico herself--did she learn to play any instruments, did she direct other music writers to produce what she was envisioning? Maybe these things were addressed and I simply missed them, but if so, it was a sentence or two at most, which might have been inaudible--

--which leads us into the problem of the poor sound quality; the music sometimes drowns out the poorly recorded interviews, so that when the interviewees lapse into softer voices, mutters & mumbles (their various accents add to this problem), it can be very hard to understand what is being said. Also annoying is the cheesy method of occasionally superimposing words on the screen as they are spoken by interviewees or sung by the soundtrack. This technique feels cheap and superficial--like a commercial trying to convince us that what is being said is important or deep.

Overall, it's definitely worth seeing if you like documentaries & music/pop history, but not a great documentary by any means. I'm almost tempted to go back and change my vote to 6, but I think I'll leave it at 7 because I did enjoy watching it. Worth renting, but not worth owning.

i can see how anyone who doesn't already enjoy nico wouldn't enjoy this film, but i thought it was great. i was first introduced to nico via her work with the velvet underground, and while nico herself isn't a very sympathetic "character" her life was extraordinarily interesting. i didn't think the filmmaker tried to her make her more lovable than she was, but instead tried to portray her as she was; interesting as well as cold, shallow but artistic. what made her unique and fascinating also made her a poor mother and an isolated individual, but her voice was different as was what she had to say. if you have an interest in her music and her work with andy warhol's factory, then i think this is a movie you'll enjoy.

This is one of the best documentaries I've seen so far. The weird but mesmerizing horror & occasional beauty of Nico's life & music are extremely well evoked. The most impressive scenes are the interviews with Alain Delon's mother Edith Boulogne -- who died soon after the movie was finished -- who had taken care of Alain's & Nico's son Ari, and, finally, John Cale performing "Frozen Warnings" alone on the piano. Susanne Ofteringer's film includes interview footage with James Young, the former keyboarder of her band, who has himself written a book about his time with Nico & the band. Only Alain Delon is missing ... No matter if you know or like Nico's definitely genuine, but strange approach to music, the movie is worthwhile watching for its documentary qualities.

"Nico Icon" is a movie which will not satisfy Nico's fans cause the essential,that is to say,the musical side ,is minimal .Both her short stint with the Velvet and her solo career are botched.

On the other hand,we hear Edith Boulogne, actor Alain Delon's mother talk for a long time of her grandson Ari -who appears himself too- .There was a world between Nico, an avant-garde artist and a simple woman such as Mrs Boulogne who complains "cause she was always feeding him with crisps ".The boy seems to despise his grandma who raised him though.

In his biography of Delon (2000),(I do not know if the book has been translated into English) Bernard Violet devoted the end of a chapter to Nico's son: "Le cas "Ari Boulogne" ".

As a big time nico-fan who has spent an unreasonable amount of money on all sorts of semi- and unofficial stuff of her, I must say that, when I came out of the movie theatre, I had quite a good feeling about this docu. Some call it a lie, but then again, wasn't Nico one of the first to invent/reinvent any part of her life as she saw fit? To add some drama? This piece of docu is pretty nice to look at, and, despite being not entirely chronological, forms a whole to me.

This said, it is indeed true that it is not that representative, and that the "whole" it constructs might not exactly be Nico. But still. Indeed, there is a lot of focus on negative aspects of her life, but then again, you can hardly find a career of 6 studio albums and some unfinished material for a potential new one in the span of 20 years prolific, can you? And it is a fact that, while before she got hooked on H she recorded 3 albums in 3 years (two of which were astonishing pieces of unheard of music that she wrote entirely by herself), once she got addicted her creativity went downhill, if not as much in quality than in quantity. The touring became a way of bringing home the bacon, while performing the same songs over and over again. In an impressive way, alright, but still the same. Frequent touring is no substitute for creativity. Look at what John Cale has been doing for the last 15 years. He has accomplished some impressive creative feats, true, but a lot of his stuff is soundtrack-muzak and the shows are copies of his first solo shows in the early 80's.

But back to the documentary. Indeed, more unique footage would have been welcome and the complete omission of Drama of Exile is unforgivable. Furthermore, this story would have clearly illustrated how deep downhill it had gone, since Nico sold the incomplete master tapes because she needed the money (guess what for) - and they recorded a second version. But still, it's negative. With the Lutz Ulbrich-interview you get the impression that they leave a lot out of the picture and instead focus on the point where Ulbrich says he can't understand how a mother could introduce her own son to the needle (true...). What about Ulbrich's involvement in her last show (on cd as Fata Morgana), for which she seemed to have taken a new start, with wonderful new material!

What's more important, it does not, apart from a few things, shed any light on the why and how of Nico's oeuvre. And this may indeed be a very difficult task, mainly because Nico was not exactly an art-explainer, which is good. That's why one might say that this documentary, as a provider of information on Nico, falls short. The beauty was in the music, and it was and is exactly its force that it needs no further explanation. Furthermore, the docu will leave fans unsatisfied and will not gain Nico a new audience, for with her music it's simple: you love it or you hate it to bits. And anyone open to its unworldly beauty will inevitably find it, documentary or not. The others will keep away, and this docu will not change their minds.

But, after all, it's nice that at least a documentary is made on her. It would be greater still if in some future, the excellent interviews would be used by someone else to make a real, full documentary, with a focus on the work and its evolution, and not on her personality problems, for though they were part of the process, they were no part of the results.

this film is truly anything but a real documentary. How anyone could take as interesting a subject as Nico and so incomprehensively make a film that purports to go inside her life is beyond me? It seems like this film was thrown together at best. I had no understanding of the real chronology of Nico's life, as the timeline jumps around repeatedly. The interviews seem largely to rely on one interview with John Cale, and it's just quite clear that the filmmakers didn't do any research whatsoever. Instead the filmmaker's come up with the dull technique of using superimposed titles throughout the film to highlight the un-insightful interviews. So superficial, so dull-looking, so without any kind of understanding of what must go into a posthumous documentary that it is really sad. A wasted opportunity. Shooting photographs for an hour or so and playing the Velvet Underground and Nico album over it is hardly the stuff of insightful or talented documentaries.

In my former comment I wrote that this "docu" is nice. Well, now I have more insight into the topic of Nico and I must post another comment, since this documentary is no documentary at all! First of all, from the technical aspect: The "narration" jumps around in time without any proper explanation, there are important video clips ("i'm not saying" and "evening of light") that *every* nico fan will want to see at full lenght and that are of course *not* played at full lenght, and the visual design, especially in the part when only v.u. music is played in the background and the lyrics are on the screen with some background images of a cemetery, is completey ridiculous and sometimes you have the feelings was only done to add time consuming footage. And now to the documentated facts: This "documentation" is no documentation at all, nearly everything said is a lie!! Here are the facts: Nico was a highly talented singer/songwriter/actress, that released three solo albums from 1969-1974, then continued her career as actress in the movies made by her longtime partner Phillipe Garell in the seventies, and continued her musical career in the 80s with two solo albums (where one ("drama of exile") was released in two versions) and lots of live albums from her world tour that spanned over 1200 live performances in japan, australia, europe. She had a unique style and a unique appearance. At the beginning of her career, when she was not writing her songs yet, she once sang for the group "the velvet underground" to gain experience in the music bussiness and that was it. she didn't like the band nor the music they played. And now, the maker of this pile of trash called "nico icon" wants to give us the illusion that Nico was unsuccessfull, insane, nothing but a junkie, ugly, a freak and the only good thing she made was that album with the velvet underground . . . At the beginning, her former manager from the 80s is asked about her and tells us how sick she was and that she was a freak. He of course doesn't tell us that he was deeply in love with her, but that she didn't want him and he then completely snapped and started things like running on stage during her performances and shouting "you are the devil!" (all documented in the book "songs they never play on the radio") There is a live performance clip shown that shows Nicos unique performing style that is misinterpreted as a proof of her being a freak, altough it is clearly obvious to anybody watching that she is a wonderful performer, even if she looks a little bit tired in the clip (which is no wonder if you have watched the FULL length of the video (it is available on a dvd called "nico: underground experience + heroine") and see there that she performs in a bar where it is extremely hot and she is very sweaty and tired because of this). Then we see an interview with James Young, who once played keyboard for her and now wants to make the most money out of this and you have the feeling that he will tell any lie for money. He wants to make us believe how ugly and unhealthy Nico wasn't (although you just have to look at a picture of her to know how beautiful she was...). The rest of the documentary is only bla bla about her being oh so much addicted to drugs and being oh so strange, and that is was such a shame that she didn't want to be a blonde model anymore bla bla bla, but nothing about her *unique* music, her acting, her vision of art etc. If you believe the docu, Nico didn't do anything else except taking drugs. Quite the opposite it the truth: She was a busy performer and busy writing songs and releasing albums, she had her own strict priniciples and believes. Susanne Oftertinger didn't even care to dig out Nicos last film performance, altough it was in a german film that should be easy to find!! Every fan of Nico watching this docu will be angry about this unnecessary lies, and everybody who doesn't know her will think her as a freak (as the movie obviously wants to). Believe me this is just like if you make a documentary about Romy Schneider for example and tell there that she was a cheap bad actress. Ok so the best thing is to watch this extremely bad researched movie (did Oftertinger do any research herself at all? For example: In the list of Nicos albums once appearing in the movie and as extra on the DVD, the "drama of exile" album and it's making is *never* mentioned!! Oftertinger doesn't seem to know *anything* about Nico, just the lies people like Young and her manager like to tell) without sound, so that you at least can see some pictures of the beautiful Nico. But it gets worse: The German DVD version is edited, there are the clips from the Garrel movies missing (maybe he forbid them to have clips from his movies in there after he saw what lies they tell about his beloved Nico) and some beautiful still-pictures. Of course the two music video clips are not included as extra on the dvd, I mean *as if* they would be interesting to Nico fans... SO: AVOID IT!!! DON'T BELIEVE IT!!

As a big fan of this Artist I was very interested what this documentation will tell me about her. I didn't tell much. If you don't know anything about her before you see this film, you will get no real info at all about her and a distorted impression about her. The interviews are nice, but are missing background info. I only detested James Young who calls her a "failure". Much time is wasted which odd images which texts from her songs over them. Why is the music video for "Evening of light" or "I'm not saying" not played in full length? For a real fan this would be very interesting. This docu also has no real chronological order, but just jumbles around with no connection. Important facts (especially about her death, her last concert, her last movie, her music, her albums) aren't told. Important people don't show up in this movie, like Antoine Giacomoni. Why is Nicos album "Drama of Exile" totally ignored in this Docu. What about her alleged Mafia connections? etc etc etc. Sure, the cuts from interviews with her are very interesting, but this docu is still very sloppy.

I knew little of Nico when I first saw this on it's first release back in 1995,but I quickly became fascinated by this striking beauty with haunting monotone voice.

There are many great moments in this:

The interview with the musician who toured with Nico in her middle aged junkie years,saying he wrote a book to show the "failure" side of rock stardom.

Nico's aunt tearfully listening and singing along with "I'll Be Your Mirror"

Alain Delon's mother showing how modestly she lives and speaks of raising Nico and Delon's son.

Seeing the grown son Ari after hearing about his troubled childhood.

The 1965 music video of Nico singing "I'm Not Saying"

As a long- and real-time fan of Nico's music, and one who was lucky enough to see her perform around 1980, I was delighted when I heard a documentary had been made about her, and was riveted to the (TV) screen throughout when I finally got the chance to see it. Nevertheless, I think the movie put entirely too much emphasis on her drug use/abuse. I would have preferred to learn much more about the making of her music and perspectives on it by musicians and critics as opposed to endless, dreary testimony about the depth of her involvement with smack. This is shabby treatment, and the worst of it comes near the beginning, like an initial slap in the face, complete with a low blow by James Young, who calls her a "failure" - perhaps he was thinking of his own musical career. He seems ignorant of how powerfully and magically she could - and still can - speak straight to the soul, in a voice at once detached and spellbinding. Jackson Browne and John Cale stand in welcome and sharp contrast in their thoughtful reminiscences about her and her work, and the opus at least closes gracefully with a moving performance of her "Frozen Warnings" on the piano by the latter. A must-see for all with any liking for her music, but will probably only put off those not yet acquainted. - J. Koetting

Came to this film, with a few good recommendations, but no knowledge at all about the woman, Christa Paffgen (NICO) about whom this documentary is based.

NICO, a young German woman, model, created an image in conjunction with Andy Warhol and his group as an asexual junkie. As a biography, the film is weak, short on information, with a limited and jaded perspective.

As a tribute, it fails miserably. I'm still uncertain where ICON fits in the whole picture aside from looking good in the title. There is little substance in the film to suggest she 'earned' any sort of recognition, stature, or approval from anyone but miscreants and lost souls. From my vantagepoint her life seems little different than many misguided college youth who gave up their lives to confusion and drugs, far too early. It's a tragic tale, I guess, but far from distinctive.

The whole deal is some sort of inside joke and I sit outside, unfortunately--maybe it all got lost in the translation.