Aufzeichnungen aus dem Tiefparterre

Rainer Frimmel’s documentary debut, "Aufzeichnungen aus dem Tiefparterre" (Notes from the Semi-Basement), is a montage of self-documentation: over the course of several years, Viennese truck driver Peter Haindl recorded himself on video—usually seated at his living room table or in an armchair, facing the camera. He holds forth, talks politics, and laments; narcissistic posturing sits alongside timid admissions about himself. Each time, he presents a different side of his persona, ranging from the "political everyman" to a poet in a slouch hat. His monologues revolve around everyday resentments—directed at women and foreigners, for instance—yet they can never be reduced to a single viewpoint. Through self-irony and contradictions, he tempers these clichés, steering his tirades toward analysis. The pandemonium of the Austrian soul reveals itself as a rhetorical labyrinth.