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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.

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.

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.

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.