Nico aka Christa Päffken, born in 1938, was a supermodel and considered one of Andy Warhol‘s “Superstars“ and the singer of “Velvet Underground.“ Later on she recorded a melancholy album full of covers (“Chelsea Girl,“ 1968) that is still relevant in the 21st century, especially since Gwyneth Paltrow smoked in the bathtub wearing Nico make up while Nico‘s version of Jackson Browne‘s “These Days“ was playing in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. After “Chelsea Girl,“ Nico made more apocalyptic, dark albums that reached cult status with fans but would never be suitable for a jeans ad or a Wes Anderson film.

Susanna Nicchiarelli‘s film NICO, 1988 has the date of death of the singer in its title, but Nicchiarell is less interested in that event and more interested in Nico‘s personality and the biographical origins of her songs. Nico‘s heroin addiction plays a secondary role. The film begins with little Christa looking at the glow of fire from a bomb attack in Berlin from far away. In the next scene Nico (Trine Dyrholm) goes to a shabby house in Manchester and asks to be left alone in the bathroom. Instead of shooting up, she takes a tape recorder from her bag and records the sound of the water boiler. Then she shoots up. Nico is first and foremost an experimental musician and then an addict. She later explains that her constant audio recordings is her trying to search for what she felt during that night of bombing, not directly for the sound, but for a certain feeling that the wind transported. Trine Dyrholm sings Nico‘s songs herself and gets the phrasing and pitch right. The film pays respect to Nico as an artist and creates a consistent, at times hypnotic atmosphere, especially in the scenes of an eastern European tour in the mid 80s.

Hannes Stein

Translation: Elinor Lewy