In my former comment I wrote that this "docu" is nice. Well, now I have more insight into the topic of Nico and I must post another comment, since this documentary is no documentary at all! First of all, from the technical aspect: The "narration" jumps around in time without any proper explanation, there are important video clips ("i'm not saying" and "evening of light") that *every* nico fan will want to see at full lenght and that are of course *not* played at full lenght, and the visual design, especially in the part when only v.u. music is played in the background and the lyrics are on the screen with some background images of a cemetery, is completey ridiculous and sometimes you have the feelings was only done to add time consuming footage. And now to the documentated facts: This "documentation" is no documentation at all, nearly everything said is a lie!! Here are the facts: Nico was a highly talented singer/songwriter/actress, that released three solo albums from 1969-1974, then continued her career as actress in the movies made by her longtime partner Phillipe Garell in the seventies, and continued her musical career in the 80s with two solo albums (where one ("drama of exile") was released in two versions) and lots of live albums from her world tour that spanned over 1200 live performances in japan, australia, europe. She had a unique style and a unique appearance. At the beginning of her career, when she was not writing her songs yet, she once sang for the group "the velvet underground" to gain experience in the music bussiness and that was it. she didn't like the band nor the music they played. And now, the maker of this pile of trash called "nico icon" wants to give us the illusion that Nico was unsuccessfull, insane, nothing but a junkie, ugly, a freak and the only good thing she made was that album with the velvet underground . . . At the beginning, her former manager from the 80s is asked about her and tells us how sick she was and that she was a freak. He of course doesn't tell us that he was deeply in love with her, but that she didn't want him and he then completely snapped and started things like running on stage during her performances and shouting "you are the devil!" (all documented in the book "songs they never play on the radio") There is a live performance clip shown that shows Nicos unique performing style that is misinterpreted as a proof of her being a freak, altough it is clearly obvious to anybody watching that she is a wonderful performer, even if she looks a little bit tired in the clip (which is no wonder if you have watched the FULL length of the video (it is available on a dvd called "nico: underground experience + heroine") and see there that she performs in a bar where it is extremely hot and she is very sweaty and tired because of this). Then we see an interview with James Young, who once played keyboard for her and now wants to make the most money out of this and you have the feeling that he will tell any lie for money. He wants to make us believe how ugly and unhealthy Nico wasn't (although you just have to look at a picture of her to know how beautiful she was...). The rest of the documentary is only bla bla about her being oh so much addicted to drugs and being oh so strange, and that is was such a shame that she didn't want to be a blonde model anymore bla bla bla, but nothing about her *unique* music, her acting, her vision of art etc. If you believe the docu, Nico didn't do anything else except taking drugs. Quite the opposite it the truth: She was a busy performer and busy writing songs and releasing albums, she had her own strict priniciples and believes. Susanne Oftertinger didn't even care to dig out Nicos last film performance, altough it was in a german film that should be easy to find!! Every fan of Nico watching this docu will be angry about this unnecessary lies, and everybody who doesn't know her will think her as a freak (as the movie obviously wants to). Believe me this is just like if you make a documentary about Romy Schneider for example and tell there that she was a cheap bad actress. Ok so the best thing is to watch this extremely bad researched movie (did Oftertinger do any research herself at all? For example: In the list of Nicos albums once appearing in the movie and as extra on the DVD, the "drama of exile" album and it's making is *never* mentioned!! Oftertinger doesn't seem to know *anything* about Nico, just the lies people like Young and her manager like to tell) without sound, so that you at least can see some pictures of the beautiful Nico. But it gets worse: The German DVD version is edited, there are the clips from the Garrel movies missing (maybe he forbid them to have clips from his movies in there after he saw what lies they tell about his beloved Nico) and some beautiful still-pictures. Of course the two music video clips are not included as extra on the dvd, I mean *as if* they would be interesting to Nico fans... SO: AVOID IT!!! DON'T BELIEVE IT!!
