Nico, 1988

Nico, 1988 (2017) is an Italian-Belgian music drama you can watch online on iFILM. It follows the final stretch of Christa Päffgen — the woman the world knew as Nico, once the voice on The Velvet Underground's debut and a face in Andy Warhol's orbit.

By her late forties the fame is long gone. She lives alone in Manchester, indifferent to her looks and her old image. A new manager, Richard, talks her into one more European tour: smoky clubs, shabby hotels, sound that cuts out mid-song. Between gigs she tries to win back the son she lost custody of years earlier. Denmark's Trine Dyrholm plays her raw and unglamorous — tired, sharp, defiantly alive.

Writer-director Susanna Nicchiarelli deliberately skips the glossy sixties icon and digs into the awkward late chapter instead. The film took the top prize in Venice's Orizzonti section. It's for anyone who likes music biopics with no airbrushing and a fierce female lead at the center. Stream Nico, 1988 (2017) online on iFILM.