From a haunting first image of Christa Päffgen portrayed as a child watching Berlin burn in the distance with her mother at the end of the Second World War, to the core of her film ‘Nico 1988’ which concentrates on the last three years of the rockstar’s life, filmmaker Susanna Nicchiarelli keeps us, her audience, spellbound. ‘Nico 1988’ opened the Orizzonti section of this year’s Venice Film Festival and for me, the event started then and there, with this touching, moving, electrifying yet perfectly human masterpiece.

The life of Nico went from teenage model to Velvet Underground singer and Andy Warhol muse, to, as the artist himself famously stated, becoming “a fat junkie” and disappearing — all in the blink of an eye. Yet when the world wanted her to go away, as they do with pretty women once they turn, eh hum... older, say thirty, Nico found her second wind. She dyed her hair, started wearing head to toe black and became the original mistress of darkness, crooning songs about her existence that still send shivers down every woman’s spine, they are so true to life!

The film screens the weekend of April 26th in NYC, as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. Book tickets on the TFF website.