"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.
