Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, a film by Laura Piani, with Camille Rutherford

30 May 2025

A still from Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. A woman is seated on a wooden bench outside a bookstore, reading a book. Behind her, shelves filled with books are visible through the shop window, alongside handwritten text on a chalkboard. The scene conveys a cozy, serene atmosphere.

A scene from Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, trailer, is the debut feature of Paris based French filmmaker Laura Piani.

A desperately single bookseller, lost in a fantasy world, finds herself forced to fulfill her dreams of becoming a writer in order to stop messing up her love life.

Protagonist Agathe (Camille Rutherford), lives in Paris, where she works at (the well known) Shakespeare & Co English language bookshop. She also aspires to be an author, but struggles with writers block. To her surprise, Agathe is invited to join a Jane Austen writers retreat in the United Kingdom. There she meets Oliver (Charlie Anson), a descendent of Austen.

Here might be a Jane Austen inspired rom-com that doesn’t seem to riff too much on the Jane Austen hopeless romantic trope. It doesn’t look like Jane Austen Wrecked My Life will be in Australian cinemas any time in the near future, so this might be one to stream instead.