Between tenderness and burlesque and with a touch of "mystery"
Agathe (Camille Rutherford), young, pretty and hopelessly single, works in a bookshop and has a Jane Austen novel recommendation for all of life's questions. When she's not listening to her best friend Félix's (Pablo Pauly) tales of conquest, she dreams of becoming a writer herself. When Félix submits the first chapters of her novel to a writing competition and Agathe wins a stay at the "Jane Austen Writers' Residency", the awkward thirty-something has to leave her comfort zone. Between tea parties and intellectually stimulating exchanges, her romance novel continues to take shape at the cozy, historic country estate. But it's not just the spitting llamas in the adjacent garden that prove to be a mood killer. The romantic kiss that Félix planted on Agathe shortly before her departure causes plenty of emotional confusion and a real writer's block. To make matters worse, she lives next door to the handsome but snobbish Oliver (Charlie Anson), Jane Austen's great-great-great-great-great-nephew and anything but a connoisseur of heartbreak literature. The two cannot stand each other - and yet fate keeps crossing their paths. Before Agathe knows it, she finds herself in the middle of a modern Jane Austen novel - between pride, prejudice and perhaps the great love after all.
Based on the best novel Jane Austen never wrote: JANE AUSTEN AND THE CHAOS IN MY LIFE is a subtle and true-to-life comedy with intellect and emotion, sense and sensuality, which the iconic grand mistress would certainly have enjoyed. With pointed wit and a lot of heart, director Laura Piani tells of the literary origins of modern love confusion and creates feel-good cinema to perfection that is utterly enchanting.
France 2025, length: 94 min
Director: Laura Piani
with Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson, Annabelle Lengronne, Liz Crowther, Alan Fairbairn, Lola Peploe, Alice Butaud, Roman Angel
