52 Films by Women Vol 9. 10. Jane Austen à gâché ma vie (Jane Austen Wrecked My Life) (Director: Laura Piani)
The title Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Jane
Austen à gâché ma vie) holds so
much promise that I was heartbroken to discover how conventional
writer-director Laura Piani’s debut feature is. Where is my takedown of Austen
romantic tropes, that the brooding, social awkward yet handsome man is the
answer to many a young – or perhaps not so young – woman’s prayers? Piani casts
in the Mark Darcy role Charlie Anson, a bi-lingual (at least) English actor
whose only Austen connection is an appearance in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a thoroughly immemorable horror comedy. Anson is the sort of guy who’d
more likely give you a quote on your insurance than exude an undertow of
suppressed passion. In the Elizabeth Bennett role of bookseller and aspiring
novelist Agathe Robinson, Camille Rutherford exudes quirky social tics. Agathe is
traumatised by a car accident involving her parents that wrecked her life more
than the novelist Jane Austen ever did – unless the car was named after the
author of Mansfield Park in which case tout est pardonné. Agathe is
close friends with her colleague, Félix (Pablo Pauly), a young man who likes
old books as much as she does, including the one in which the close confidante
is not so secretly in love with the protagonist.
At the start of the
film, Agathe is content to give customers recommendations whilst engaging in
banter with Felix. She lives with her sister, Mona (Alice Butaud) and young
nephew Tom (Roman Angel), minding the child while Mona goes on dates when men
whose names she cannot remember (Gabriel or Raphael). During a solo meal, Agathe
imagines a handsome bare-chested gentleman appearing at it were from the bottom
of her sake cup. In Agathe’s fever dream, he carries her out of the restaurant,
his charismatic presence silencing her need to ask where his shirt is. This
inspires Agathe to write. The first two chapters impress Felix so much that he
secretly sends them to a Jane Austen Residency retreat where writers can be
inspired or intimidated by working in a dead author’s house. Apparently meals,
long walks in the grounds and a ball are included, but not it seems soldiers
returning from the Napoleonic War. Instead, the father of the house, Todd (Alan
Fairbairn) is an older gentleman who recites poetry while forgetting to wear
his trousers, a detail somewhat missing from Austen’s oeuvre.
The film is full of
romantic comedy tropes, like Félix and Agathe singing along to a pop song to
distract Agathe from car sickness. (Is that a trope?) Then after taking the
ferry, Oliver (Anson) greets her with astonishment. ‘I expected someone older,’
he explains. Naturally, he drives an old sports car of the type almost never
seen on English roads – rarer even than a hybrid. Naturally the car breaks
down. Oliver and Agathe have to spend the night sitting next to each other
before they hitch a lift on a farm vehicle – it’s always a farm vehicle –
sitting in the trailer on top of some transported goods. Eventually, they
arrive at the Residency.
The best gag – I use
the term loosely – involves Agathe undressing in her room, expecting the door
next to hers to lead to a bathroom. As she removes her underwear – the actress
shown discretely from behind - she bounces one undergarment on her knee like a
football; Piani is keen to remove any erotic charge from the scene. Then she
wanders opens a door and greets Oliver. The absence of en suite
bathrooms in English country houses is something of a bête noire to
continental visitors. I’ve been in enough hotel rooms to know that the bathroom
door is left slightly ajar so that there are no unpleasant surprises (like how
small the shower is).
Piani fills the film
full of French speaking actors in English roles, including Liz Crowther as the
matron of the Residency, offering Agathe on arrival a full English breakfast.
The writers are an earnest collection of one-note stereotypes, including a political
theorist, Olympia (Lola Peploe, daughter of screenwriter-turned director Mark
Peploe) who debunks the value of literature as a means of telling people how to
behave. Todd pours cold water down her back, presumably incurring a lawsuit. In
one scene, Agathe hovers over her laptop while another young woman, Chéryl
(Annabelle Lengronne) earnestly types. Agathe doesn’t so much experience
writer’s block as writer’s ‘what am I doing here?’
The purpose of the film is to contrive as many meetings between Oliver and Agathe as possible, even when she goes to a local antique shop that contains 101 useless things. What’s he doing here? What’s she doing there? Why are we watching this? Agathe and Oliver exchange back stories. Oliver’s wife cheated on him multiple times. I’m not sure I believed this, but I can see why Piani challenged the cliché.
The film plods
along. Olympia reveals that her fifth attempt at IVF was unsuccessful. Agathe
and Chéryl take her to the pub. In her distress Agathe phones Félix, only he
cannot hear her over the noise of an event in the bookshop. Have either of them
heard of WhatsApp?
Then Félix surprises
her by turning up at the residency. Agathe has to make a choice. Her best
friend or the handsome if uncharismatic (yes, I said that before) Englishman.
Pictured: Shall we glance? Agathe (Camille Rutherford) and Oliver (Charlie Anson) in a scene from the French romantic comedy, 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life', written and directed by Laura Piani. Still courtesy of Icon Film Distribution (UK).
The film boasts two
set pieces. The aforementioned ball, in which Agathe wears a red dress and
dances first with Oliver then with Félix; Félix tells Oliver, ‘you dance very
well’. Could he be more condescending. Then a coda in Shakespeare & Co, in
which an elderly American (the documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman) reads Jack
Hirschman’s poem, ‘Path’. This surprise cameo transported me out of the film
but proved to be its most original touch. There is a visitor standing at the
back of the bookshop who disappears. Agathe steps outside. The visitor
reappears.
There should have
been a third set piece, a reading of works in progress, but who wants to see
that? The film doesn’t make a great case for writers’ residencies. If you give
a writer space, they get spaced out. ‘Many great works were written here,’ we
are told, but I didn’t believe it.
The dementia
exhibited by Oliver’s father gives the film a sad undertone. He stays at the
Residency to help support his mother. The writing is stronger than the acting,
but Oliver is clearly characterised as a decent chap.
In spite of failing
to spark as a romantic comedy, Piani’s film has many virtues. In particular, Agathe’
speech in which she makes the case for Jane Austen, that before her novels
women were either depicted in literature as wives or monsters. Austen wrote
about women’s complexity. Agathe faces her own demons, heading – after leaving
the Residency – to her parents’ retreat. She becomes inspired to write, proving
that you don’t need the ghost of a dead author to nudge you along, rather the
memory of a supportive parent tragically killed in their prime.
Reviewed at Finsbury Park Picture House, Screen Five, North London, Tuesday 17 June 2025, 18:00 screening
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