Jane Austen Wrecked My Life Review

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Jane Austen a gâché ma vie) is a French language (and some English in there too) romantic comedy written and directed by Laura Piani.

It feels like this rom-com was made specifically for me: An aspiring writer who works at a bookshop* in Paris goes to a writer's retreat in the English countryside that’s hosted by descendants of Jane Austen. Well, I suppose it's just the dream of every bibliophile who has perhaps watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice at least 100 times and bawled their eyes out reading Wentworth’s letter to Anne at the end of Persuasion.

Agathe sits in front of her lap top but rests her chin on her hand staring wistfully offscreen. Writer's block has never looked so romantic

Writer’s Block be like…

But perhaps what hit me the most about this film is how Agathe avoids things; she’s coasting through life and has massive impostor syndrome, which stamps out her creativity. Her best friend is the one who gets her onto the retreat. Still, she tries to resist going due to past trauma (involving a car accident- though girl could have taken the Eurostar?) but also because she’s worried that everyone else will be better than her and that she doesn’t really belong there and that she is only fooling herself that she is a writer.

Hmmm, a bit too relatable on the avoidance front.

Agathe and Oliver dance at the Jane Austen themed Ball. They are looking deepely into each others eyes.

Agathe and Oliver dance at an obligatory ball scene - one does not simply do Jane Austen without making the main character share an intimate dance with a love interest or two.

The film is rather charming and plays out like a Rohmer feature, perhaps a Hong Sang-soo movie, and unfortunately, one must mention Woody Allen too. There’s also a recurring musical motif which, to my Wong Kar-Wai obsessed brain, has a very In the Mood for Love vibe to it - I can’t seem to track down the piece, but the opening refrain sounds very similar to Yumeji's Theme by Shigeru Umebayashi.

Agathe and her friend Félix look at each other with friendly smiles. Agathe is holding an umbrella to keep both of them kind of dry in the English rain.

Agathe and her friend Félix,

In conclusion, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life wears its Rom-Com tropes on its sleeves, which isn’t a bad thing as it satisfyingly delivers them, and one can’t not mention that there’s also a very Hugh Grant-esque love interest who echoes Mr Darcy through and through (though no Hand Flex™ in sight). Just wait for this to become every bookish girl's, gay’s or they’s fave comfort movie.

*The Iconic Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Interestingly, after a short amount of research, Piani actually used to work at Shakespeare and Company - this time in her life was a clear inspiration for the film.

Italian Cinema: La Chimera review

La Chimera is the latest film by Alice Rohrwacher and stars Josh O'Connor as an archeologist haunted by the past in 1980s Italy.

Spoilers ahead.

In La Chimera, myths are magically realised on screen. Arthur wanders across Italy in search of his lost lover, Benimina. He is the Orpheus to her Eurydice. He plumbs the depths of tombs, raking through dirt on a promise that always remains out of reach. He cannot enter the underworld and reclaim her. Also, it must be noted that in some versions of the myth, Orpheus ties a string around Eurydice’s ring finger to remind her of her love for Orpheus while she is in the underworld. String is, therefore a symbol of memory, of how we are literally tied to one another even after death.

Another famous myth that is brought to mind both literally and figuratively is that of Theseus and the Minotaur, in which Ariadne helps Theseus escape the dangerous labyrinth with a thread. At the close of the film, Arthur is trapped in a collapsed tomb, and it could be suggested that his melancholic disposition throughout the film is a sort of psychological maze that he can finally escape once he finds the red thread that leads him back to Benimina.

The read thread unravelling from Benimina’s knitted dress.

Arthur sees a tunnel of light leading him out of the sealed tomb and towards Benimina. Death?

The film's stock and lighting make it feel like a dream, fable, or fairytale, which is only furthered by the use of magical realism and superstition, such as when Arthur encounters ghosts on a train, how he uses a stick to find treasure and of course the aforementioned allusions to mythology.

The scenes with the Tombaroli (grave robbers) feel like a travelling troupe of clowns or actors (breaking the 4th wall and all!). For much of the film, you want to be near them, to be a part of this community, and to feel the ecstasy of discovering these ancient artefacts right up until the illusion is shattered. This comes when a beautiful ancient temple is discovered underground; as they unseal this sacred place, the air of the 1980s seeps in and destroys the fresco's immaculate colouration, leaving them duller and spoilt. The temple's centrepiece, a mesmerising statue of Artume, is also decapitated, furthering the symbolism of how destructive greed is.

Early scenes of the Tombaroli reach an almost Bachaenalia level of revelry. 

Brutal decapitation of a statue - this desicration shows the true colours of the Tombaroli

September Wrap Up: The Substance, Strange Days and loads of other movies and basically 1 book

I spent most of September watching movies - rather a lot of French movies but also a criminally underrated Cyberpunk movie from the 90s - Strange Days and, of course, the movie everyone is talking about, which is none other than The Substance.

August Wrap Up: Books, Aliens, Jaws + The Rings of Power!

These are all the books I read and the Movies and TV shows I watched in August.

Oh, and I spent an unholy amount of time playing World of Warcraft: The War Within this month—tbh, I spent a lot of time on the pre-expansion event, too.

July Wrap Up: Kairos put me in a reading slump, Perfect Days is a perfect film & watching Apple TV+

Seasonal allergies and unseasonably warm weather delayed this video, but it's finally here. So watch for my July books, movies, and TV shows.

Also, please ignore the dodgy colour grading. I'm trying to learn how to do it in Davinci Resolve, and it's the most confusing thing despite downloading a PowerGrades package to do it. FFS!