A life without limits
Amon Maynard and his family live in such abundance that almost every freedom appears available to them. Success, polished manners and an effortless routine define their public image. Amon’s leisure activity, however, reveals a disturbing indifference to other people.
Daniel Hoesl and Julia Niemann build a sharp satire about wealth and social power from this situation. The question is not simply whether money buys happiness. The film examines what happens when someone’s opportunities become so extensive that moral and legal limits hardly seem to apply.
Coldness behind good manners
Laurence Rupp makes Amon unsettling through his completely untroubled composure. Ursina Lardi gives Viktoria an elegant, chilly presence. Olivia Goschler’s Paula adds to the family’s perspective and strengthens the sense that its rules have long been accepted as normal.
Gerald Kerkletz’s bright, meticulously arranged images are particularly well suited to this world. The direction does not need constant frantic escalation. Its calm makes the contrast between polished appearances and moral emptiness more evident. Black humour and discomfort emerge from the same apparent ordinariness.
Verdict
Veni Vidi Vici is a convincing and uncomfortably accurate satire. Its performances and controlled visual construction give the subject a strong cinematic form. It provokes by showing more than individual bad behaviour: the surrounding world allows privilege and power to push responsibility almost entirely out of view.