Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32603 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-06-14
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com
Born Klaus Sperber in Essen, Germany, Nomi dressed like an alien, sang like an angel, and electrified new wave-era New York. The classically trained tenor moved to the US in the 1970s. Influenced by Maria Callas, Marlene Dietrich, and 1950s sci-fi films, the "opera-singing pastry chef," as writer Glenn O'Brien described him, developed a unique look and sound that stood apart from every other act to emerge from the East Village. At the height of his fame, he caught the eye of David Bowie, with whom he performed on Saturday Night Live in 1979. Unfortunately, his AIDS-related death in 1983 curtailed any chance to reach a wider audience. Andrew Horn's evocative portrait rises above the ordinary by documenting a scene as much as its most original participant. Aside from a wealth of archival material, The Nomi Song includes interviews with Kenny Scharf and Ann Magnuson (but alas, no Bowie). --Kathleen C. Fennessy

From The New Yorker
Operatic in pitch and flow, the German-born singer Klaus Nomi was an underground sensation on the performance-art scene of the late seventies and early eighties. His songs, equally influenced by David Bowie and Maria Callas, along with his Kabuki-like performances of them, had a tragic glamour that stayed well away from camp. Andrew Horn's documentary is, like Nomi, arch and arty, and presents his performances in all their mesmerizing intensity. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Will the World Ever Catch Up?
I have been waiting literally half my life for this movie. I first saw Klaus Nomi performing in Urgh! A Music War when I was 14 years old( like most other teens in small towns across America , Nomi wasn't exactly playing for them in the club down the street ) and have been fascinated ever since. By the time I had gotten my hands on his two albums, he was dead and gone and largely forgotten, one of the first victims of AIDS in the world of the arts. His music literally defies desciption. It is all over the place and very difficult to put into a category ( this is discussed at length in this movie .) If you have only a passing knowledge or curiousity of this extraordinary entertainer, you must see this film. If you are a fan, it will be a dream come true, like it was for me, and will fill in all the holes in the Nomi story. It is his life, told with pictures, anecdotes, lots of concert footage, old interviews with Klaus himself and new interviews with those who knew him before he became famous. A MUST SEE.

Klaus Nomi-Here For A Little While
Caught this film a couple of months ago at an independent film workshop and could hardly hold back the tears. I saw Klaus Nomi in Columbus, Ohio during his whirlwind tour of the Midwest and still have my red and black button with the Nomi profile. It sure was different back then-the folks in Akron were so enchanted by this strange little man that he ended up on the cover of the Akron Beacon-Journal Sunday magazine-holding a huge oversized old boot from a flea market and smiling the most bemused little grin of astonishment. Through the interviews and private film footage on this DVD we get to see a little bit of the man beneath the make-up. The segments in Aunt Trudi's dollhouse almost broke my heart as she talked about what a happy little boy he had been and how all the children would come running when he came for a visit-contrasted with the way he died-alone and friendless as did so many others in the early 80's.
Buy this as a souvenir of a time that was filled with so many possibilities and so much tragedy. Klaus's life was certainly filled to the brim with both.

Portrait of A One-of-a-Kind Artist in a One-of-a-Kind Decade
My husband and I were eagerly anticipating THE NOMI SONG, Andrew Horn's by-turns witty and poignant documentary about Klaus Nomi, the German singer/performance artist with the multi-octave range who took New York and then the world by storm for a brief, exciting period in the late 1970s and '80s. Nomi, with his outer space alien persona, was so avant-garde that even the avant-garde set wasn't quite sure what to make of him, but loved him all the same before his tragic death from AIDS (this was back when AIDS was still new and scary and known as "gay cancer"). Our 8-year-old daughter liked Nomi's "high, high voice" and kooky costumes. We adults liked the interviews with Ann Magnuson and other scene-makers from the era, as well as the chance to see such rarities as Nomi's 1979 performance with David Bowie on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (which I remember seeing during its live broadcast back in the day). THE NOMI SONG also sports a treasure trove of DVD extras, including full-length musical performances, an Easter Egg feature for part-time pastry chef Nomi's lime tart recipe, and Lou Christie talking enthusiastically about Nomi's cover of his classic "Lightning Strikes Again" (Christie kinda starts talking about himself, too, but it's interesting and endearing). If you like 1980s New Wave music and all things offbeat, THE NOMI SONG is well worth seeking out.