Susanna Nicchiarelli’s award-winning drama about Christa Päffgen, better known as Nico, has secured distribution. Deadline reports that Magnolia Pictures snagged the U.S. rights to “Nico, 1988” and is planning a theatrical release for sometime in 2018. Trine Dyrholm (“The Commune”) portrays the Danish multi-hyphenate, who is best known for providing vocals on the Velvet Underground’s debut album, being a muse to Andy Warhol, and acting in Warhol’s “Chelsea Girls” and Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita.” She was also a musician and songwriter.
“Nico, 1988” takes an atypical approach to telling Nico’s story. Rather than depict the glamorous height of her fame, the film “centers on the final two years of Nico’s life in 1987 and 1988, approaching 50 and living a solitary life in Manchester,” the source summarizes. “Her manager Richard (John Gordon Sinclair) convinces her to hit the road again and tour Europe to promote her latest album. Struggling with her demons and the consequences of a muddled life, she longs to rebuild a relationship with her son, whose custody she lost long ago.”
The biopic won the Horizons competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
“Nico, 1988” isn’t the first woman-directed film focused on Nico. Susan Ofteringer helmed the 1996 documentary “Nico-Icon.”
Nicchiarelli’s previous credits include “Cosmonaut” and “Esca viva.”
You can check out a trailer for “Nico, 1988” below.
