Nico Icon

Starring:Nico, Christian Aaron Boulogne, Tina Aumont, Edith Boulogne, Jackson Browne, John Cale, Danny Fields, Viva, Carlos De Maldonado-Bostock, Helma Wolff, Jonas Mekas, Paul Morrissey, Sterling Morrison, Billy Name, Nikos Papatakis, Lutz Ulbricht, Alan Wise, James Young, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed
Director: Susanne Ofteringer
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

A striking and harrowing documentary about fame, drugs, pop culture, and celebrity, Nico Icon casts a harsh light on the underground world of pop art and music in the 1960s and 1970s through the prism of a girl who lived too hard and died too young. The German-born Nico is presented as someone who never fit in, no matter what she was doing, from her career as a fashion model in the 1950s (including an appearance in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita) to her tenure in the 1960s as one of the cast of characters in artist Andy Warhol's "Factory" to her stint as a backup singer for Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. Most of the film concentrates on her sordid relationship with her son with French actor Alain Delon and her decline into heroin addiction and obscurity. This visually innovative and challenging documentary doesn't judge her but uses her life to illustrate the excesses of the world around her. Nico Icon will be a revelation for those interested in the world it depicts. --Robert Lane

Customer Reviews:

Best and Beautiful.......2007-05-20

How great it is to see Nico singing, talking.

Also features Nico's aunt as she recalls Christina's youth and how the both knew she'd become the successful Nico, model, singer and poet.

Her son Ari recounts tales with his mother "Heroin is a killer" he says.

Many of Andy Warhol's clique also speak of their personal memories of her, including Viva and John Cale

This documentary is very interesting even if you are not a fan Of Nico.

Haunting, and achingly beautiful..........2006-12-20

This is one of those exceptional documentaries which takes as its subject someone whom virtually no one would want to know on a personal basis, and yet turns that subject into someone you can't help but be fascinated by, and even feel affection for. Regardless of how rabid a Nico fan you are (and I'm pretty rabid, myself), it's hard to assert that she wasn't an extremely difficult person to know, to say the least. I venture to say, though, that this film is as close as most of us will ever come to knowing what she was like, as it is a clear eyed portrayal that refuses to romanticize her personal struggles and unkindnesses, while at the same time not condescending to 'drugs are bad and gee, wasn't she weird?' cliches.

In another review, someone mentioned that Nico probably simply didn't care enough to live. I think that there is something to this; however, I would tweak that claim slightly to say that, perhaps, Nico never really saw herself as living in this world at all. She dwelled somewhere very near the curtain that separates this world from 'The Other'. Nico perhaps saw her physical beauty as a supreme twist of cosmic irony: the one thing about her that everyone seemed to agree on, and that was her meal ticket for years, was the least tangible and 'real' of phenomena to her.

In any case, Nico's music is exceptionally beautiful, and this documentary gives plenty of examples of that, as well as rare and revealing footage that you really can't find elsewhere. Even if you're only a casual Nico fan, or fan of documentaries, I highly recommend "Nico Icon".

Nico-Icon.......2005-07-06

This Title is essential for true Nico fanatics. It is excellently produced and gives us, the viewers, a real look at the private Nico. I personally, cannot recommend it more highly. This is the real deal! Nico, warts and all.

Unknown Icon........2005-01-24

I first heard of Nico many years ago. I vaguely remember her as the epitome of Nordic beauty, who sang with The Velvet Underground and consequently was associated with Andy Warhol. Knowing alot about Warhol history, I was aware that Nico was mostly remembered for her appearance and her non-communicative ways. In Underground recordings featuring Nico, I would have to agree with Warhol's appraisal of her vocal skills as the "voice of a beautiful cow." She seemed to be just another of the many tragic, lost beauties, like Edie Sedgwick, who almost made it, but, not quite. In this interesting documentary, one gets to know Nico somewhat better. One of the main thoughts I came away with upon viewing this film is the sad feeling of wasted beauty. Though that commodity's value is questionable, and certainly fades with time, Nico's beauty, as viewed here in early stills and films, was shocking. It was not just the knowledge of what was to come that made me feel sadness at seeing this girls exquisite, flawless beauty. She was obviously too deep a person to just settle for being viewed as merely gorgeous. She was also a talented poet/songwriter, and I was very impressed with her ethereal later recordings seen and heard here. I certainly can't argue with her statement also heard here that her only regret was that she hadn't been born a man. No, beauty was not enough for her. What is sad to reflect upon is her deterioration into heroin addiction. She became what a bandmate here refers to as a "middle aged junkie", and the film seen here of Nico toward the end of her life is of a person that has become unrecognizable compared to the blonde ice goddess of not too many years before. The fact that she also had a very young son, to whom she apparently provided a steady diet of potato chips, and basically abandoned to the kindly mother of the child's father, actor Alain Delon, and whose very presence obviously interfered with her wanderlust, makes any empathy with her hard to conjure up. Also hearing from her ex-lover that Nico got same son addicted to heroin is an extremely distasteful and unsympathetic thought. Yes, she had some talent. But, was she a troubled human being, whom we should pity, or simply selfish from birth? It is hard to say why she was the way she was. She died what appears to be a sad end in her 40's. In our culture there seems to be as much appeal for sad endings as there is for success stories. But, as I myself get older, and having had two close, smart, devestatingly gorgeous glamour girls of my own who met tragic ends through drugs and alcohol, I see nothing but sadness in loss of this kind, there is no glamour in it. Unlike Marilyn Monroe, who arguably was touched by God, the likes of Nico, Edie, Gia, and many before and after them, will more than likely only be remembered by their families and those that knew their names , all of whom are diminishing with time. However, this film is of interest not only because it's the story of beauty lost, but it is well crafted and scored. All said, the overwhelming feeling of a life squandered and burned out too soon will probably prevent me from viewing it again.

a good film on Nico's life.......2005-01-14

This is a very good film, but nothing said about Nico by anyone can be taken a face value. The problem for someone like Nico her whole life is that few (if any) people really wanted to know her, they wanted to use her, to hustle her or to destroy her. And when you look like Nico, if you don't let those people do that, your a cold loveless bitch. And everyone you didn't give yourself up to will spread every sort of hateful story and lie about you. Your a talentless, worthless, a bad mother and a failure. People who at the same time admit that she never allowed them to be close to her seem to know every detail about her.

And when people abandoned her later, it wasn't because she was a junkie. It was because her looks went. People have no problem heaping praises on male zombies like Lou Reed no matter how bad he decays in performance and musical skill. But be a woman over a certain age and the only thing people want from you is that you should go off in a corner and die out of their sight.

As far as her son and heroin. Never listen to a junkie blaming other people for their addictions. She didn't make him use herion. She did the best she could for him. She was never equipped to be a great mother and her habit did help, but she was not the monster many would make her.

In the end, she was an artist. She created great music and she is best remember through that music.

Average customer rating:

Best and Beautiful
Haunting, and achingly beautiful...
Nico-Icon
Unknown Icon.
a good film on Nico's life

Nico Icon [Region 2]
Starring: Nico , Christian Aaron Boulogne , Tina Aumont , Edith Boulogne , and Jackson Browne
Director: Susanne Ofteringer
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( N ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

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The Frozen Borderline: 1968-1970
Nico, Songs They Never Play on the Radio
Femme Fatale: The Aura Anthology

ASIN: B00004WCPC

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Customer Reviews:

Best and Beautiful.......2007-05-20

Haunting, and achingly beautiful..........2006-12-20

Nico-Icon.......2005-07-06

Unknown Icon........2005-01-24

a good film on Nico's life.......2005-01-14

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