Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

Agathe (Camille Rutherford) lives the rom-com dream: she works in the famous Shakespeare & Co bilingual bookstore where customers leave love letters on the mirror quoting Tolstoy, and there’s undeniable chemistry with her colleague, Félix (Pablo Pauly). Beneath the glossy Notting Hill facade, however, she’s an unpublished romance author battling writer’s block, living with her sister and nephew. More akin to Persuasion’s Anne, a perpetual wallflower, than Pride and Prejudice’s confident Elizabeth, Agathe struggles to find her voice.

That all changes when Agathe is invited to a Jane Austen Residency in England. Spending two weeks in a manor full of creative nooks and wandering through forests and glades, Agathe struggles daily with impostor syndrome. That is, until she starts to become acquainted with the handsome yet prickly Oliver Lowe (Charlie Anson, Downton Abbey), Jane Austen’s living descendant. Grappling with her demons and her heart, Agathe must decide between what she’s always known and something–or someone – new.

Directed by Laura Piani

2024 | France | French and English language with English subtitles