Nico, 1988

I rated this 8/10. Maybe I should have rated it higher. There are parts of this film that I am not sure if they are flawed or genius. A bit like Nico's ouevre, so that is perhaps appropriate. I was utterly transfixed for the duration of the movie. And yet by what I do not know. Relatively little happens. There are long silences. Yet both what is said and not said manages to restlessly slip away from cliche, and at the end I felt like I understood something I did not understand before. I am not sure who I could recommend this film to, yet I feel like I experienced something masterful

"Nico Icon" (1995) ,a documentary, was a movie which could not thoroughly satisfy Nico's fans cause the essential,that is to say,the musical side ,was minimal .Both her short stint with the Velvet Underground and her solo career were botched.This work was centered ,in fact,on the son the artist would have had with French star Alain Delon ,a fact which remains uncertain even today and even though the actor's family did take on the child .

There's a very brief hint at a"French actor" in the 2017 movie. "Nico ,1988" is a different matter ,because it deals with the last months of the artist : a poor epitaph ,a sad and tatty end of a singer who was once associated with one of rock's most influential albums ("the V.U. and Nico°,though gossips keep on repeating her creative role was minor,which is not entirely false)

Based on true accounts from people who were around , "Nico 1988" is a gloomy but credible crepuscular biopic ;it seems that, in the eighties, Nico made an attempt at a more palatable (I would not write"commercial" ) ,more "rock " music ;in the seventies ,she would perform with her harmonium -she notably performed in a cathedral , an ideal background for this ghostly ,spectral music ; the treatment of "all tomorrow's parties ",a song she recorded with the V.U. ,makes her music more accessible and more exciting than the haunting but a bit droning sound (her approach of the German National Anthem was impressive though and John Cale 's production of her cover of the Doors' 'the end' helped );and on her tunes,notably "janitor of lunacy" ,the updating is effective and welcome ;this one effortlessly supersedes the studio version.

She would retain a certain cult in Europa and it shows ,,and her before mentioned son ,Ari , appears and is proud of her mother (the 1995 doc showed a young man who would despise his adoptive mother ,which was off-putting); her choice to perform behind the Iron Curtain was as adequate as the cathedral of the seventies .

Tryne Dyrholm 's performance is perfect;she convincingly portrays a jaded faded singer, ravaged by drugs ; her death is given a very proper treatment.

A strong biographical drama portraying the last years of singer Nico, former Velvet Underground. It develops well her uneasy character, her personal relations, her artistic view. The movie is good in all technical traits. However, what is impossible not to highlight is the outstanting performance by Tirine Dyrholm. He is simply amazing in the leading role, showing all the anger, sadness, impatience, impulsiveness, sometimes vatious of these feelings at once! As I read in two otber review, if the world were better (or if Acadeny Awards were serious), she would have certainly won the Oscar as the best actress.

"Nico, 1988" (2017 Italian-Belgian co-production; 93 min.) is a bio-pick that examines the last 2 years of Nico, the German singer/performer who because instantly famous in the mid/late 60s for her association with Andy Warhol and of course her collaboration with The Velvet Underground. As the movie opens, we are told it is "1986" and we get to know Nico, who is moving into a small and unremarkable house in gray and gloomy Manchester, England. She is about to tour with her new band, made up mostly of second or third rate musicians, but her manager can't afford better. Along the way we see Nico struggling with her heroin addiction. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this movie is directed by directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli, whom I admit I am not familiar with. In fact, much of this Italian-Belgian co-production features a cast of unknowns, except for Danish actress Trine Dyrholm in the title role (we saw her most recently in the excellent "The Commune"). Dryholme is absolutely sensational as the latter day Nico, and she carries the movie on her shoulders (she is in virtually every frame of the movie). On top of that, Dryholm also does her own singing of the various songs from Nico's solo albums that we hear and watch throughout the movie). Is everything that we watch in this film truly an accurate reflection of how those last two years of Nico's life? I haven't a clue, but one does get the sense that there is a good overall narrative in this film, for whatever that's worth.

I likely would've missed this film but for the fact that during a recent family visit to Belgium, I heard about this and then read an interview with Trine Dyrholm in a Belgian magazine. The movie opened the very weekend I was there. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at in Antwerp, Belgium, was attended okay but not great. That's hardly a surprise as this isn't the type of movie that will find a large mainstream audience. But if you are interested in learning more about Nico's latter years in life, you could do a lot worse than watching this movie, and hence I'd readily recommended you do (I have my doubts this will get a theatrical release in the US so check it out on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray).

He had more potential, especially dramatic and family, he had a child with Alan Dellon, who was never recognized by him, despite his parents having raised and adopted him, at age 16 Nico's son shared drugs and syringes with her, he was born during the war, the German soldier father, will die in the war, she had stated that maybe all Germans have Nazism in their veins, when asked about, there was a lot about her to be said, they focused on a short time, unfortunately, uninteresting...