THE STORY – Al Cook lives surrounded by memories. His apartment and basement studio are crammed full of books, videotapes, and vinyl records – all that remains of a life once fully lived. Here, time seems to stand still while, beyond these four walls, the world has moved on. The blues, the music that means everything to Al, is slowly being forgotten. His hometown no longer feels like home, and the loss of his beloved wife, Silvia, still weighs heavily on his heart. When a ruthless real estate company targets his home for demolition, his refuge is taken away, leaving him to face the ruins of his life. As Al is forced to let go of his treasures one by one, he must ask himself the painful question: How do you move forward when memories are all you have left? In the face of total loss, he chooses a radical new beginning.
THE CAST – Alois Koch, Brigitte Meduna, Alfred Blechinger & Flurina Schneider
THE TEAM – Tizza Covi (Director/Writer) & Rainer Frimmel (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 86 Minutes
“The Loneliest Man in Town” is the very definition of a docudrama; non-actor Alois Koch, aka Al Cook, plays himself in this fictional tale about himself. The film trods along at a gentle pace, documenting a once-famous Vienna-based blues musician who hangs onto the past. This Berlinale competition title is the latest film from director duo Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel; their most recent film, “Vera”, won the Best Director prize in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. Covi writes, directs, produces, and edits their films. While Frimmel directs, shoots, and produces. They are a seriously talented duo, with their creative touch evident across their films.
The film follows Vienna-based blues musician Alois Koch, better known by his stage name Al Cook. He’s an ageing musician who has always been obsessed with blues artists and iconic blues locations, such as the Mississippi Delta in the United States. Despite his undying love for American music, he’s never been to the country and endeavours to finally make the trip after a set of events upend his life in Vienna. He has always lived in the apartment he was born in, but now he is the only remaining tenant after a brutish estate agency bribed all his neighbours to move, so they can knock down the historic building and rebuild it anew.
Al takes his time to come to terms with the harsh reality that he will have to move. His apartment is a cherished place full of memories; endless vinyl records, one-of-a-kind Elvis Presley memorabilia, and his recording studio. One by one, Al pawns off his personal items as he prepares to move on with his life. He plans to get a one-way ticket to America, where he will start anew. He wants to visit and, potentially, live in the birthplace of the blues, and experience the music at local juke joints the way his inspirations once did.
“The Loneliest Man in Town” is a clever docudrama that blends Al Cook’s real life with, potentially, his old dreams of moving to the United States. In reality, Al continues to live in Vienna, where he’s a local legend for his blues music. That blend of fiction and non-fiction is hard to crack, given that Al is a non-actor, but with brilliant direction, they get a genuinely believable performance out of the musician. However, this should come as no surprise to viewers who’ve seen the directors’ previous work, as docudramas are their forte. They reimagine Al Cook’s future, adding fictional drama while staying honest to his character and honouring his life experience.
There isn’t all that much dialogue in the film; much of what’s said comes through the visuals. Without being told that Al is a blues artist, the camera shows his studio, littered with records, blues memorabilia, and instruments. His passion for music is evident from the start, and we begin to paint a picture of his life through the memories scattered throughout his well-lived-in apartment and studio. The camera often lingers, observing Al’s actions; it almost feels like an observational documentary at times. The fiction side is most noticeable when the film is humorous; one character who works for the estate agent is extremely funny. He threatens to plague Al’s existence until he signs, so he breaks in, drinks, and sleeps on his couch one night. Al discovers the tattooed man snoring in his living room; it’s hilarious to see how unfazed he is. He just gets on with his day, but that’s the kind of person Al is: calm.
There is an ever-present, unspoken sense of melancholy. Looking back, Al lived a good life in Vienna, made some great music, and lived happily with his late wife. But he’d always wanted to visit America and never did; one can’t help but feel sad for him. That’s why when he decides to up and move to the United States, it’s a happy moment that he could potentially live out his dream. However, he isn’t young anymore, and perhaps the American dream wouldn’t be as perfect as he imagined. Also, so much time has passed that the iconic areas where the blues originated probably changed a lot. So, the question arises, would Mississippi or Tennessee feel like home, or would he miss Vienna? Home is where the heart is, but his heart is split between Austria and the United States, so only taking a risk would answer the question.
“The Loneliest Man in Town” is one of the smartest and most seamless docudramas in a long time. Stepping out of the cinema, looking up Al Cook and seeing that he’s a real person, a living blues legend of Vienna, was an experience of its own. Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel deserve praise for their ingenuity in blending reality and fiction, as each element elevates the other to create this poignant and insightful film. The film deserves to be watched; it’s very unique, but perhaps not the most memorable because it’s so quiet and unassuming.
