Jane Austen a gâché ma vie
Director: Laura Piani
Writer: Laura Piani
Based on: very loosely, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Cast: Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson, Annabelle Lengronne, Liz Crowther, Alan Fairbairn, Lola Peploe, Frederick Wiseman
Seen on: 14.11.2025

Plot:
Agathe (Camille Rutherford) works at an English bookstore in Paris, is a hopeless romantic and dreams of becoming a writer. But she has been stuck creatively for a while, as much as she has been stuck with regards to romance. Her best friend Félix (Pablo Pauly) submits her draft to a writer’s retreat at the estate of Agathe’s great idol Jane Austen. Not only does the retreat force her to confront her dream of becoming a writer, the somewhat surly Oliver (Charlie Anson) also triggers her romantic feelings.

Jane austen a gâché ma vie is cute enough, if you don’t expect too much Jane Austen from it. It’s sweet, but not terribly innovative or overly engaging.

I like Jane Austen a lot, though Pride and Prejudice is far from my favorite of her novels (it’s probably in 4th place), so I think it’s a pity that new takes on Jane Austen often fall back on Pride and Prejudice and don’t consider any other work. In most cases, though, I get the feeling that’s because it is the favorite for most people. With this movie, though, it felt more like a matter of convenience. Like Piani didn’t actually know the other works and also didn’t care, she just needed some writer to set the plot in motion.

So, while there is a passing resemblance to a cliff notes version of P&P in the plot (Agathe caught between the serious Oliver and the more flighty Félix), the reference to Jane Austen is more a choice of aesthetics than of actually engaging with her work. Which is fine in general, but makes the title that literally puts Jane Austen first a little weird and sets different expectations.

Once I realized, though, that the movie I expected a little (something more along the lines of Austenland maybe) wasn’t the movie I was seeing, I was able to go along with things easily. Agathe was an engaging protagonist and Oliver and Félix brought their own charm. Personally, I would have chosen differently from Agathe, I think, but I liked the way she got there.

That being said, any great emotional investment on my part remained missing. In fact, my strongest reaction was when we see Agathe coming up with her story idea – a woman falling in love with a naked guy from a sake shot glass. And suddenly, in the Asian restaurant she is sitting in, a naked Asian dude shows up and walks towards her table. I was tense for a moment because I was wondering how they would manage to not make this racist, but they actually succeed – when the dude simply embraces Agathe and they dance in a very sweet and intimate moment. But apart from this rollercoaster sequence – that lasted for a couple of minutes – the film never elicited great emotions or really drew me in. Ultimately, that’s what I want, especially from a romance, so in that sense, it didn’t really work for me, despite being a nice watch.

Summarizing: cute, fun, shallow, a little forgettable.