“Isn’t it beautiful here?” Amon Maynard (Laurence Rapp) tells a visiting dignitary in “Veni Vidi Vici,” ready to land his helicopter on an untouched parcel of land near his estate that he hopes to turn into the largest battery factory in Europe. In Daniel Hoesl and Julia Niemann’s tangy black comedy, there is nothing picturesque that is resistant to rot and though Henry Ford once had the good sense to set his house far from where he could ever hear the purr of an engine again or breathe in any smog produced, Amon has no such issue living with what pollution he puts into the world when imagining Ampere, his company, being just down the mountain from his home, instead (mildly) concerned that the land to be reclassified by the local ministry in order to build and he hopes to takeover the company of his mentor to see his plans through.
The latter isn’t an issue – Amon simply informs his fellow battery maker that he’s absorbed his company, and he shouldn’t expect his dealings with local government officials to be, either, but as you start to wonder what could possibly prevent Amon from steamrolling everyone around him with his billions, Hoesl and Niemann’s own grand vision starts to take shape as capitalism run amok has broken any previously accepted rules of accountability. It is a small but strong signal of what you’re about to see when “Veni Vidi Vici” is introduced with the credit “An Ulrich Seidl Filmproducktion,” and anyone familiar with the Austrian provocateur will surely see why he took a liking to Hoesl and Niemann’s discomfiting sensibilities as far as its deadpan humor and its unsettlingly pristine aesthetic. Also opening the picture is a quote from “The Fountainhead,” clever if for no other reason than to suggest a self-seriousness it never has any intention of living up to but canny in positioning Amon as an even more oblivious Howard Roark, whose fortune came at the expense of everyone else’s and famously taunted, “The point is, who will stop me?”
There are a couple threats lurking around the perimeter of Maynard’s mansion when a journalist named Volker (Dominik Warta) has been on his case for months, collecting evidence of his misdeeds in hopes of getting his ex-wife to publish an expose in the local paper, and a neighboring farmer Alois, who tires of the billionaire wantonly encroaching on his land. However, Hoesl and Niemann view them as having the same potential to do damage that Amon does, and part of the filmmakers’ brilliance is in subtly reflecting the resignation and exhaustion that sets in for anyone attempting to challenge the privileged and the seemingly benign choices that allow them to take even more power. The co-directors are far less subtle about the danger that Amon poses, quite literally having him shoot random people for sport while using any concern about a local sniper running around to his benefit, but while flagrantly committing crimes in the open without consequence, a public that has become more concerned for their own individual welfare than to share any concerns with one another is exposed.
Violence is largely bloodless in “Veni Vidi Vici,” but Hoesl and Riemann make the prevailing attitudes cut deep, having Paula (Olivia Goschler), Amon’s teenage daughter who has fully absorbed her father’s point of view, comment omnisciently on the unfolding events as if things are taking their natural course. You’d be inclined to agree if it wasn’t for your better judgment, but the temptation is enough for the filmmakers to make a convincing case that accepting things as they are in times where those in power can manipulate reality to their liking — which happens to include them with their camera — is no way to go, making the path of least resistance appear as a road to ruin. Hoesl and Niemann take no prisoners on the route they’re on, but hold an audience captive with the savage satire.
“Veni Vidi Vici” will screen at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19th at 11 am at the Redstone Cinemas in Park City, January 20th at 1:30 pm at the Megaplex at the Gateway in Salt Lake City, and January 26th at 9:45 pm at the Redstone Cinemas 7. It will also be available virtually from January 25th-28th.
