Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

I was going to write something serious about the fluff of rom-coms.

I made notes about Jane Austen’s heroines and the tropes of cinematic romantic comedy. It was going to be clever and oh, so dull.

I saw sense.

Why try and write something scholarly about a genre that can be distilled to:

“Will these two individuals become a couple?” (Bill Merrit – see I told you I made notes)

Jane Austen Wrecked my Life has been modestly well-reviewed. As a low-budget film that straddles French and English it will probably not garner that much of an audience. And I’m not going to suggest you seek it out, unless you are either a Rom Com or a Jane Austen completist. It is fine. The small budget means sometimes it looks a little odd, especially watching a French chateau being used to double as an English Stately Home and the way the countryside, climate and ports of both countries look suspiciously alike. I was also taken out of the action a number of times by dialogue that appeared out of nowhere, obviously designed to make a point, rather than reflect real life. And there were a number of secondary characters that only serve a purpose and therefore act out of their assigned stereotypes. But, yes, it’s fine. It takes an awkward encounter, a romantic dilemma and some obstacles and then produces a suitable ending.

And because it references literature and is bi-lingual, it feels a little classier than it probably deserves.

I have loved rom coms for a loooooong time (non-serious deliberate misspelling). I grew up wanting to be Calamity Jane. When Harry Met Sally is one of my all-time favourite films in a world where Citizen Kane and Amadeus exist. I am usually happy to enter a delightful fluffy world where boy meets girl and be cuddled by its familiarity, even whilst declaring myself a feminist.

So, I know there is a tightrope to walk between taking myself and the genre too seriously.

But I want to update the conventions, just ever such a little.

Jane Austen has provided the source material for a number of rom coms – whether as a straight-forward transcription, or altered slightly for modern audiences, or as a jumping off point for a character or plot. The reason Austen has provided this inspiration is because as Agathe says in Jane Austen Wrecked my Life:

“Jane Austen was the first author to write real women with real emotions and depths”

(I’m paraphrasing because I can’t find the exact quote). However accurate this may or may not be, the taking women’s lives seriously is central to the appeal of Austen. It can also be central to the cinematic romantic comedy. In a movie industry that favours big budget action and super-hero movies, or spy thrillers and detective films (where the woman character is dead, or soon will be), the rom com offers a space where women’s lives are central.

I’m getting too serious aren’t I?

But the issue is that women’s lives are constantly changing. Austen’s commentary wasn’t about romance for the sake of romance. It also held important considerations of class and the binding impossibility of women’s lives. Romantic comedy based on Austen (or indeed any rom com) that is only about a woman finding a man miss a point. We have to know what is at stake and why the romance matters. Especially in an age where women can buy their own diamond rings. The car she’s driving – she bought it. We do not have to get married to have financial security We can work. We can pay someone to do jobs around the house. We might not have servants to do all the domestic drudgery, but we have microwaves and washer-driers and modern medicine to save us from dying after getting too cold and wet. We can even have babies on our own, or alongside a same-sex partner. We can speak our minds and we don’t need to be tamed.

In Jane Austen Wrecked my Life, Agathe is lonely. She has suffered trauma, the dating world is ugly and shallow. But romance does not have to be the answer to that.

I still want my fluff. I still want women’s lives to matter. But writers, the men in a romantic comedy need to step up to the plate and be the kind of person who is going to enrich a life, bringing joy and excitement. In other words, can rom coms stop using emotionally-distant, inarticulate men or promiscuous bed hoppers as the prize?

There is a dissonance (sorry, serious word) between watching a career-driven, sassy, talented actress portray a woman who falls for the bounder, yet again. In a world where the obstacles to true love are thankfully being pushed aside (like social class, ‘race’ and sexuality) maybe we need the emphasis to shift from the romantic to the comedy. Let’s get less predictable, quirkier, and cleverer (just not too clever).

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