This is a biographical film, following the last two years in the life of Christa Pfäffgen, better known as Nico. Maybe the title is misleading. Most of the film takes place in 1986. I would have called it "Nico: The End", a reference that her fans would recognise immediately.
To quickly sum up her life: Christa Pfäffgen was born in Cologne in 1938 and moved to Berlin with her family in 1940. When she was 16 she became a fashion model and moved to Paris. This was when she began to call herself Nico. She became an actress in 1958 and made a series of films, including the lead role in "Strip-Tease" (1963). She had a brief affair with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, who encouraged her to record her first single in 1965, "I'm not saying", produced by Jimmy Page. Shortly after this she became associated with Andy Warhol, who used her in his experimental films. He encouraged the band Velvet Underground to add her as a singer, which they did grudgingly, because they didn't think she fitted their style. From 1967 on she began a solo career as a singer.
From the 1970's on she began to hate the name Nico and wanted to give it up, but her managers persuaded her to retain it because that was how her fans knew her. She wanted her friends at least to call her by her real name, Christa, but it was too difficult to overcome old habits. She remained Nico, whether she liked it or not.
That's the prologue. The film begins in 1986 when she's practically washed out. She's a heroin addict and she's suffering because her son Ari is in a mental institution, but she wants to pull herself together and go on tour. She rents a small house in Manchester as her base of operations. The film shows her performing an unsuccessful concert in Paris and a very successful concert in Poland. Despite her poor physical state she still has boundless talent which she can unleash when she's not high.
All the time she travelled she had a tape recorder with her which she used whenever she heard interesting sounds. She said she was trying to rediscover the sound that she first heard when Berlin was being bombed in 1945. Was that a drug-induced mania? I don't know.
The actress Trine Dyrholm, who I've never heard of before, puts on a stunning performance as Nico. We can feel her pain in every scene, but what's most amazing is her singing. She isn't quite Nico when she's on stage, but she gets remarkably close.
During her solo career Nico referred to herself as the Priestess of Darkness. Posthumously she was called the world's first goth girl. Those are just titles. She was an incredible singer with a powerful voice tinged with sadness. I just regret that she was ruined by her heroin addiction. We lost her too soon.
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