Nico Icon

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.

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.

"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" ".

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"