Notes from the Basement takes a radical look into the mind of ‘the man on the street’. Peter Haindl, a hospital orderly in Vienna, shot these home movies from 1993 to 1999. They were given to film-maker Rainer Frimmel, who created this 90-minute compilation. An original self-portrait and a monologue delivered by a contemporary Herr Karl (the perfect incarnation of an opportunist and big-mouth), this psychological striptease is both personal and political.The paradox of this film’s background rivals the paradoxes in Peter Haindl monologues. While striking various poses around his apartment, he addresses an imaginary public, his speeches ranging from defiant to contrite. Each one shows a different side of his personality, from political grumbler to poet in a wide-brimmed hat. His monologues deal with the usual prejudices, for instance against woman and foreigners, and none of them can be reduced to a single coherent point of view. Truisms are qualified with contradictions and self-irony, but his tirades occasionally swerve in the direction of serious analysis. The state of pandemonium which characterises the Austrian soul is depicted as a labyrinth of rhetoric. (Dominik Kamalzadeh)
