Rating: 
Summary: revealing insights into nico's life
Review: Icon no, iconoclast yes. Inside joke no, inside brilliance that self-destructed yes. Failure no, otherwise why are we talking about her today. Now that we've got that settled, the DVD is a little short on biographical information, and sometimes the background music drowns out the dialogue a bit. But overall very artistically put together. Some really good interviews, like with with the German aunt who raised her, which was quite moving. Coverage of her years as a model was excellent. Coverage of her time in Andy Warhol's Factory and in the following few years through Marble Index and Desert Shore could have been a bit more detailed, but there were some really interesting vignettes of the era. One assertion stated, by whom I forget, is, I believe, a bit off-base. I don't believe she started her son on heroin, eventhough she did use it with him. Parenthetically, I find it interesting that we don't forgive Nico for the same excesses as her male counterparts. I'm no women's liber, but I agree with the reviewer from Seattle who hit that issue dead on. A really good DVD for Nico fans; her music is brilliant and that's what it's all about. She might have had a moment's more happiness if she had known how well she actually did succeed in the long run. The fact that her music is enjoying a rebirth, as for example in the soundtrack for the "The Royal Tenenbaums," makes this DVD topical to say the least.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Documentary
Review: Nico Icon was a great documentary. It was really haunting, and a bit sad to see some of the scenes.This video tells all of Nico's life, from her childhood, to her becoming a model and actress(with great footage and photos) to her son Ari, her times in the Velvet Underground, her relashionship with Lou Reed and Jim Morrison, her solo album Career, her heroin addiction, and her final end, when she died in 1988. Interviews were done with Paul Morisey, Viva, and other people who knew Nico.
Rating:
Summary: NICO IN EXILE
Review: Nico's voice bellows like a dark sea breeze, recalling tales of lives smashed against the rocks of popular culture. Her pump organ wheezes, gasping for breath, pleading with the listener to share its melancholic notes as Nico herself draws closer to the cold heart of the tempest. Nico Icon depicts the life of an exceptionally talented artist who took great risks in her life as well as her music. Through the looking glass, we see Nico orbitng around the likes of Warhol and the factory cronies, only to later emerge in a solar system of her own creation. Nico was perhaps the epitomy of a lost generation, but she sings from experience, and with a heart that has broken more times than the needle that kept Nico chasing heroin and life.
Rating: 
Summary: The edition details are misleading...
Review: The edition details report: Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), German (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) - Available subtitles: English. But the truth is that there's only ONE audio track which is mainly in english but sometimes (when the interviewed person can't speak english) in german or french and there are english subtitles ONLY for german and french parts. Other than that the documentary is interesting and a must see if you are fscinated by NICO.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating glimpse into Nico?s life
Review: This documentary was filmed a few years after her death. Several people who knew her well are interviewed -- members of her band (both Velvet Underground and musicians who toured with her in the 1970s and 1980s), friends, her only child, Ari, and an aunt who helped raise her. "Unconventional" seems to be an understatement of her persona. One man who is described as a bohemian who apparently knew her before her Velvet Underground days, says that no one liked Nico and Nico liked no one. I'm don't think that's true, but the appearance is that she really didn't like herself, and that may be manifested in her habitual drug abuse and addiction. In the film, we learn that she introduced her young son to heroin, which resulted in his falling in a coma. When she visited him in the hospital, she brought a tape recorder and recorded the sound of his life support machine so she could use it on her next album. Nico's aunt from Germany, who helped raise her, gave some information on her early life. Nico was born in the 1930s and it sounds like she had to grow up in a hurry during WW II and even afterwards. There are film footage and stills from Nico's modeling days in the late 50s and early 60s. In her later days, one guy who toured with her said that she drew a knife and threatened to kill the driver of the band's van. I think it was the same guy who said that after being primarily noted for her physical beauty in her younger life, she was now proud of her rotting teeth and bad skin. She was clearly a troubled woman yet there is undoubtedly something mysterious about her that drew people to her. Some of the information in the film is very touching about Nico. But when we learn that she was irresponsible with raising her young son and other disturbing incidents, it's difficult to not to get angry with her actions. Nevertheless, it is heartwarming to hear her son (now in his late 30s) very proudly exclaim, "My mother was an artist." It's clear that he loved her. When asked, in a later interview, what her one regret in life was, Nico replied that she wish she had been born a man instead of a woman. This documentary touches on many aspects of Nico's life, and love it or hate it, I do think it's an excellent video for anyone even mildly interested in the dark German chanteuse. I also think that it's important to remember that people's opinions and perceptions of Nico are only that and not hard, cold facts. To think otherwise would be injustice to someone who can no longer speak for herself.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating glimpse into Nico¿s life
Review: This documentary was filmed a few years after her death. Several people who knew her well are interviewed -- members of her band (both Velvet Underground and musicians who toured with her in the 1970s and 1980s), friends, her only child, Ari, and an aunt who helped raise her. "Unconventional" seems to be an understatement of her persona. One man who is described as a bohemian who apparently knew her before her Velvet Underground days, says that no one liked Nico and Nico liked no one. I'm don't think that's true, but the appearance is that she really didn't like herself, and that may be manifested in her habitual drug abuse and addiction. In the film, we learn that she introduced her young son to heroin, which resulted in his falling in a coma. When she visited him in the hospital, she brought a tape recorder and recorded the sound of his life support machine so she could use it on her next album. Nico's aunt from Germany, who helped raise her, gave some information on her early life. Nico was born in the 1930s and it sounds like she had to grow up in a hurry during WW II and even afterwards. There are film footage and stills from Nico's modeling days in the late 50s and early 60s. In her later days, one guy who toured with her said that she drew a knife and threatened to kill the driver of the band's van. I think it was the same guy who said that after being primarily noted for her physical beauty in her younger life, she was now proud of her rotting teeth and bad skin. She was clearly a troubled woman yet there is undoubtedly something mysterious about her that drew people to her. Some of the information in the film is very touching about Nico. But when we learn that she was irresponsible with raising her young son and other disturbing incidents, it's difficult to not to get angry with her actions. Nevertheless, it is heartwarming to hear her son (now in his late 30s) very proudly exclaim, "My mother was an artist." It's clear that he loved her. When asked, in a later interview, what her one regret in life was, Nico replied that she wish she had been born a man instead of a woman. This documentary touches on many aspects of Nico's life, and love it or hate it, I do think it's an excellent video for anyone even mildly interested in the dark German chanteuse. I also think that it's important to remember that people's opinions and perceptions of Nico are only that and not hard, cold facts. To think otherwise would be injustice to someone who can no longer speak for herself.
Rating:
Summary: Morbidly fascinating with some truly haunting moments
Review: This film can be very depressing but it's a gripping look at a truly unconventional celebrity--a beauty who wanted to be ugly and dragged her life and loved ones down with her. Some of what is revealed about her is so bizarre, you wouldn't believe it in a work of fiction. I wouldn't say this makes for light viewing but if you're interested in Nico at all, I'd highly recommend it. And the rendition of Nico's "Frozen Warnings" by John Cale over the closing credits is stunningly beautiful and haunting.
Rating:
Summary: oh so amazing...
Review: this film was amazing/sad/moody/difficult/lovely/harsh, a lot like nico herself seemed to be. they portrayed her really fairly and evenly, i thought, showing how she was this amazing intellegent beautiful talented artistic woman who wanted ohsomuch more than to be just a model, but that she also was a unrelenting junky by middle age who also got her teenage son addicted to heroin. yeah. it was so hard to watch her in the interviews from the '80s, how different she seemed. but then you'd hear some of the interviewees say that she had always craved that aesthetic, that she never liked being so conventionally beautiful, that she felt like it prevented people from taking her art and her self seriously, that she loved it when she "lost her looks," when her heroin habit made her skin and hair and teeth really bad. she did seem pretty happy in the '80s, but also seemed like if an interviewer had brought up something important/emotional to her, like her son, she would have turned on a dime and started to rage or cry. her relationship with lou reed fascinates me, her interactions with the velvet underground seemed really lovely at first, but then apparently lou started to tire of her, and john cale claims lou had "both personal and musical reasons." hmm. they don't elaborate much on that, and lou wouldn't be interviewed for the film. andy warhol loved nico, but i'm always a bit suspicious of andy. on one hand, i love the factory and the ideas that he tried to bring to the art world, and his "traveling circus" of sorts. but, he also bugs me a lot, strikes me as being just self-serving and self-promoting in a way that could never be justified by claims of living a life of art or anything... john cale is lovely and seemed to have truly loved nico. she had so many men... the one quote that struck me, though, was "no one ever loved nico, and nico never loved anyone" by an old man french friend of hers. and it seemed so true. she apparently spread the word around the '60s nyc art world that she was a lesbian, mostly just so men would leave her alone. she was so attractive, she was so mad at her beauty for drawing me to her. she seemed to so much want real love with someone, but could never find it, although she tried a lot. she also craved beauty, sophistication, art, etc., and seemed to have had a chance at first (right after she arrived in the u.s. from europe) to be a mainstream pop star of sorts (although she was so different from most of the girls of the time), but she said that she had no interest in anyone who wasn't underground. i loved that. i spent most of my high school life obssessed with nico and the velvet underground. i spent ohsomany hours crying and being consoled by nico's voice on "i'll be your mirror," "all tomorrow's parties," etc. nico was my icon of beauty and grace and class and sophistication and everything else that i felt was lacking in my high school and in my city, etc. i have always craved knowing more about her, more than the images i got from the cds or the andy warhol bio i read back then, etc. and although the film is hard to watch in parts, it's also so beautiful and so authentic and so so so real. you can't have the young happy beautiful nico without the older wiser aged crusty nico, and that's the main lesson of her life, it seems. so, if you have any interest in nico, check this out. it's definitely worth it! i really want to read a book on her life now...
Rating:
Summary: a good film on Nico's life
Review: 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.
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