SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
As Agathe Robinson moved through the shelves of the famed Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, where she works, she can feel both grateful for all the voices of writers who surround her, but also a little left out. She's a writer with writer's block and no love life. "Jane Austen Wrecked My Life" is the debut feature film, written and directed by Laura Piani. The director joins us from Paris. Thank you so much for being with us.
LAURA PIANI: Thank you for inviting me.
SIMON: Is Agathe really mad at Jane Austen?
PIANI: She needs someone to blame, you know? And sometimes it's easier when it's a writer who died a few hundred years ago.
SIMON: Yeah. Tell us about the frustration that Agathe is facing in life and trying to write.
PIANI: Well, I guess, she comes from a family of writers, and she's struggling finding her voice because she's grieving, actually, and she has to face this pain. And she's alone, and she feels like she's not fitting in this world. She feels like she's not - she was not born in the right century. And so Jane Austen is a refuge. Her books, you know, are exactly where she would like to live in. But, unfortunately, she lives in 2025, so she has to go on a journey to find her own voice. And that was very important for me to do a rom-com about a woman who won't be saved by love, who will save herself first and then fall in love.
SIMON: There are two men in her life, we should add. There's Felix, her great good friend. And then the - I don't know how many times to say great - nephew of Jane Austen, Oliver. She meets him when she kind of improbably gets a two-week Jane Austen writing residence at an old English estate. Could we play the scene where they meet? And we should say that Oliver teaches contemporary literature.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE")
CAMILLE RUTHERFORD: (As Agathe Robinson) You teach literature, but you despise Jane Austen.
CHARLIE ANSON: (As Oliver) I just think her work is a little overrated. But she has a rather limited scope, if you compare her writing to, say, Dickens or Shakespeare.
RUTHERFORD: (As Agathe Robinson) Do you know what the real problem is?
ANSON: (As Oliver) What?
RUTHERFORD: (As Agathe Robinson) Well, until Jane Austen came along, all female roles were solely written by men, and they were either portrayed as idealized perfection or monsters. Jane Austen made them human beings - that's all - even capable of humor.
SIMON: Ah. And we'll just say that there's a love triangle that could be right out of Jane Austen, isn't there?
PIANI: Yeah. Yeah. But Jane Austen, for me, at least, created romantic comedy. So when I started to think about this script, I didn't think about Jane Austen immediately. I thought about this character, who is blocked. And then I thought, OK, who could she blame, really? Who created a romantic ideal that still resonates today everywhere in the world? She's probably one of the most celebrated and read writer nowadays. So she did something very mysterious - Jane Austen. She didn't know, I think - she couldn't know - how much today, nowadays, everywhere, among these six novels, everything is still relevant. This is fascinating for me. It's a big enigma, and it's beautiful, I think.
SIMON: I gather you yourself used to work at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, right?
PIANI: I did. That was a very important experience for me. It's a place where when you're a young writer and you're broke and you dream to live in Paris, you can sleep in the bookshop in exchange of few hours of work per week. The greatest writers did that - the beat generation - Kerouac, Ginsberg, Anais Nin. It's incredible. And it's more than a bookshop because it's also a monument. You know, you visit the bookshop. So these years - they were very happy, and I was surrounded by people who were, like, aspiring writers, musicians, you know, actors, and who were a bit like me. We were feeling a bit like the character, you know, a bit misplaced. We didn't fit.
SIMON: Why do you like the rom-com genre?
PIANI: It's a genre that says a lot about the time we live in without preaching, without teaching, without being too demonstrative. It's a very subtle and delicate genre, and it's also a possibility for optimistic movies. And I believe that in the world we live in right now, there is an emergency to do optimistic movies and to tell optimistic stories. At least me, I was really in need for that kind of stories.
SIMON: Movie does raise a question about artists. Can they be happy and create at the same time? Or are they only happy if they can create?
PIANI: Yeah. It's a big question, and I certainly have no answer. But I would say that if there was one answer in this film, is the poem at the end - "Path" by Jack Hirschman, who talks about broken hearts.
SIMON: May I read a few words from that?
PIANI: Oh, please. Please, do.
SIMON: Jack Hirschman, and obviously, my rendition can't compete, but here goes.
(Reading) Go to your broken heart. If you think you don't have one, get one. To get one, be sincere. Learn sincerity of intent by letting life enter because you're helpless, really, to do otherwise.
That says it all.
PIANI: That says it all. And it's crazy 'cause it makes me very emotional to hear it. It's been 15 years that I know this poem. I filmed Jack Hirschman - the poet himself - at Shakespearean Company 15 years ago, and this poem has been a guideline, somehow. If I have one wish, is that people go out from the film and they feel a bit happy and they want to read more poetry. That would be my biggest wish.
SIMON: Laura Piani's debut feature film, "Jane Austen Wrecked My Life," in theaters now. Thank you so much for joining us.
PIANI: Thank you so much for inviting me.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOLDEN'S. "TALK TO ME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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