Nico: Supermodel, singer and reluctant muse

Supermodel, singer, muse: Christa Päffgen, aka Nico, was a pop icon of the 1960s and 70s. The film Nico, 1988 is released on the 30th anniversary of her death. On July 18, 1988, Päffgen died of a ruptured aneurysm at the age of 49, after falling from her bicycle.

Danish actress Trine Dyrholm plays Nico in the film, tracing the icon's tragic decline. Dyrholm won the Silver Bear award at the Berlinale film festival in 2016 for her role in The Commune. In Nico, 1988, the actress sing's Nico's lyrics herself, a considerable feat considering the late-singers unpredictable vocal style.

Christa Päffgen (here portayed by Trine Dyrholm) was born in Cologne in 1938, and was discovered in Berlin as a teenager. At age 16, she moved to Paris to model, and became known as "Nico." She struggled with her beauty and later happily accepted her physical decline, which was helped along by years of drug abuse. Nico's life oscillated between glamour and gloom and included numerous love affairs.

Nico called French actor Alain Delon the "most beautiful man in the world." In 1962, at the age of 24, she gave birth to his son, Ari. However, Delon did not recognize the paternity and Nico returned to her wild life in New York, which was not fit for a child. Her ailing mother took care of Ari before Delon's mother became responsible for his education, allegedly kidnapping him to do so.

In 1964, Nico met Bob Dylan in London, who was then working on his fourth album Another Side. Dylan supported Nico's first music-making attempts, including the song "I'll keep it with mine," which appeared on her first solo album in 1968.

In the early 1960s, Nico met artist Andy Warhol in New York. He later said she looked like she had come across the Atlantic at the bow of a Viking ship. Nico was a regular at his studio, the "Factory", where artists and high society mixed and mingled. This is where Warhol connected Nico with The Velvet Underground.

Nico also had a steamy affair with Velvet Underground front-man Lou Reed. In addition to their private dalliance, Reed and Nico worked together on the band's first album. At the time, it was a commercial flop, but it went on to be considered a foundation of experimental rock.

Released in 1967, The Velvet Underground & Nico was the first album by Lou Reed and John Cale's band. Andy Warhol designed the cover and produced the music. It is now known as the "banana album" and touches on topics such as consumerism and drug addiction. Such themes were present throughout Nico's life. She left the band after the first album was released.

The muse of X, the girlfriend of Y – although Nico is said to have had affairs with just about every well-known New York high-society artist in the late 1960s, she wanted to be seen as an independent person. She escaped her looks by destroying them through years of drug abuse.