Film Review: TWST: Things We Said Today (2024) directed by Andrei Ujica
Romanian director Andrei Ujica's newest film is a sprawling exploration of idolatry and concurrent events in real time, situated in the mania of The Beatles of the 1960s.
Film Review: TWST: Things We Said Today
'TWST: Things We Said Today'. ImAGE: Venice International Film Festival.
The Romanian filmmaker Andrei Ujică is known to play in the gray area between documentary and fiction, often exploring the tension between history and memory. His newest work, Things We Said Today (or TWST), is a continuation of this established oeuvre, while also exploring several specific and modern social ideas through his one-of-a-kind experimental approach.
The film’s creation began in 2012 with the support of the HfG ZKM Filminstitut and the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain— a longtime patron of Ujică’s work. The film features nearly 100 hours of 8mm home movies and another 100-plus hours of 16mm news footage.
A first-hand look at Beatlemania
Relying on a mix of archival footage, superimposed animation, and an all-new narration, the film successfully re-contextualizes the real-life events around the historic 1965 Beatles concert which took place at Shea Stadium in New York City. For those old enough to recall, these scenes may be a walk down memory lane. For younger audiences, it’s a well-curated time capsule.
There is a palpable excitement as the essential plot builds across a city: footage darts back and forth between the spacious, empty airport tarmac and the crowding, screaming fans awaiting The Beatles at a hotel in Manhattan. The moment of collision is deliciously impending— hysteria is all but assured.
As expected— but no less satisfying— the scene outside the hotel collapses into chaos as proven by a mix of interviews, newscasts and shaky handheld footage curated by Ujică. Through hundreds of perspectives, Ujică manages to climb inside the reality of a Beatles superfan and their individual desires— the all-consuming fantasy of getting something, anything— eye contact, a handshake, an autograph— from a Beatle. All the while, The Beatles manage to sneak their way past the crowds and join a press conference, reveling the bittersweet compromise that is, by definition, the idea of a chance.
Superimposed Characters
In this moment, we’re also introduced to a sort of main character who does get a chance— an aspiring writer named Geoffrey who appears as a hand-drawn individual superimposed over news footage. Geoffrey is based on the New York poet and essayist Geoffrey O’Brien, who actually met the Beatles thanks to his father, a radio DJ. And like almost everything else in Things We Said Today, we’re further exposed to the complicated magic of being in the right place at the right time.
To build the story, Ujică utilizes the contemporary journals of O’Brien and Beatles superfan Judith Kristen to craft a fictional narrative that collides in a blissful arrangement, with quiet illustrations and narration appearing incidentally, accompanied by gentle animations that preserve the integrity of the footage.
All the while, the film is unmistakably Andrei Ujica—the style is meticulous, blending long takes and unedited sequences with careful juxtaposition. The sound production is remarkably refined given the age of the footage.
An expanding World
As a few of the Beatles wave to screaming fans in the streets and travelers make their way to Queens for the big concert, Ujică masterfully expands the Beatles-centric world he creates to include adjacent realities which are likely out of mind for the average Beatles enjoyer, including the New York World’s Fair, the Los Angeles Watts riots; and general ambient life outside of the city. Scenes go from exciting to tense, frightening to beautiful, then horrifying or tranquil.
The film’s remarkable achievement is that it— despite strictly leveraging footage from that certain period— manages to capture an idea that has become more crystalized in the time of social media: the dizzying collision of emotions on a single visible timeline, thanks to a relentless onslaught of content.
Today, we experience this phenomenon so often that it feels almost instinctual, but in the context of the film, it feels like a revelation— there is always stuff happening all the time— Should we know about it? Do we want to know about it?
TWST: Things We Said Today Premiere and Streaming
TWST: Things We Said Today celebrated its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 4th, 2024. Its North American premiere took place at the New York City Film Festival (NYFF) in October 2024. Find it streaming here.
