Film / Joséphine

Joséphine is a 2013 French comedy by Agnès Abadia starring Marilou Berry in the lead, loosely adapted from Pénélope Bagieu's comic series.

30-year-old Joséphine is single, lives with her cat Brad Pitt and is looking for the man of her dreams. During a family meal, her younger sister, Diane, who seems perfect in every way, announces her future marriage: this is the straw that breaks the camel's back for Joséphine, who has not got a man in her life. Jealous, she claims she is marrying Marcelo, a Brazilian surgeon, and will live with him in his country. Joséphine's lies then start to spiral, producing life-changing outcomes.

A sequel called Joséphin s'Arrondit (Eng. Joséphine Gets Rounder) came out in 2016.

This film has examples of:

• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • Chloé, Alexandra and Sophie are all brunettes in the comic, while here they're blondes.
  • While Diane is appropriately blond (though not as bleached) in the first movie, she becomes a brunette in the second.
• Adaptation Name Change: Joséphine's sister Irène is renamed Diane in the movies.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Gilles, due to being a Composite Character, is a lot closer to Simon (sweet, silly, family guy, a discreet sort of attractive) than to his comic counterpart (who is only Joséphine's coworker).
  • Sophie was Joséphine's sweet, pushover intern in the comics, but here she's her childhood friend who Really Gets Around.
  • Joséphine gets a bit of Adaptational Villainy, as she had her bitter moments in the comics but never did anything outright malicious. Here, she gets caught in a Snowball Lie because she tries to upstage her sister as she announces her engagement, solely because she was envious and perhaps still a little drunk. She acts more on her jealousy in general, unnecessarily dunking on sweet Alexandra who did nothing to ask for it. In the books, she was friendly with Alex at all times even when she married her ex.
  • Diane, conversely, is far more sympathetic than her comic counterpart Irène, a self-centered Rich Bitch who only turns to Joséphine when she needs something from her. Diane, while she clearly takes some pleasure in making Joséphine feel bad about herself, is more open to recognizing her mistakes and shows genuine care for her sister.
• Adapted Out: Olivier, Joséphine's boyfriend who eventually marries Alexandra; as well as Diane/Irène's husband and two children.
• Chekhov's Gun: Before she decides not to go to Brazil and stay hidden in France, Joséphine still sends off her suitcase. Her friends realize that she's still there when the airline sends it back to her place in Paris.
• Composite Character: Gilles is a mix between Joséphine's work Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Gilles and her endgame boyfriend Simon.
• Cool Uncle: Gilles - his talent with kids is one of the reasons Joséphine falls for him.
• Gay Best Friend: Cyril.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Joséphine is devoured by envy, especially towards Diane. The reason she gets caught in a Snowball Lie is that she couldn't handle her little sister getting engaged while she was still single as a pringle. She's also unnnecessarily mean to Alexandra, whose only sin is being nice and pretty.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Between Joséphine, who's always been jealous of her sister being the golden child, and Diane, who believes that Joséphine made it her life mission to ruin everything that matters to her. At the end of the day, they deeply care for each other.
• Hippie Parents: Gilles's mother had him when she was 16 during the hippie age of sexual liberation. She paints naked in her apartment and smokes weed.
• Instant Birth: Just Add Labor!: Averted. When Joséhpine's water breaks, her friends rush her to the nearest hospital in a panic... Only to be told that she's not even beginning to dilate. They spend hours playing card games waiting for active labor to start.
• In-Universe Nickname: Joséphine's friends call her Jo, and her family Jojo.
• The Mistress: Joséphine sleeps with Julien every Saturday despite him being married; see Sympathetic Adulterer below.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When Gilles is upset about the inpromptu marriage Joséphine's family is throwing them, her mother assumes it's because it's in a church and asks if he's Jewish. Simon, Joséphine's boyfriend in the comics, is indeed Jewish.
  • Diane's cheating fiancé is called Aymeric after her comic counterpart's young son, little Pierre-Aymeric.
• The Other Darrin: Joséphine's sister and mother have been recast for the second movie.
• Nice Guy: Gilles. He's initially a Dogged Nice Guy, as Joséphine finds him incredibly boring and predictable, but as she gets to know him in private it turns out that she's very into his sort of boring.
• Race Lift: Cyril, who is white in the comics, is played by Cyril Gueï, who is black. Rose, who is black in the comics, is played by Amelle Chahbi, who is Maghrebine.
• Raised Catholic: Joséphine is from a very traditional bourgeois family, who actively participate in the Christmas mass every year. It's a struggle when she has to announce that she's pregnant without being married.
• Remember the New Guy?: Sophie was absent from the first movie.
• Runaway Bride: Diane. She initially believes that her sister is only trying to ruin her wedding by claiming that her fiancé is cheating, but ticks when Aymeric calls Joséphine a "fatass" and eventually chooses to trust her as they flee the church in the rental limo.
• Snowball Lie: To avoid being alone at her sister's engagement party, Joséphine makes up a Brazilian fiancé and claims she will be following him to Rio. Her friends get caught in the net as her family asks them for confirmation, and see her to the airport. She also loses her job when Alexandra assumes that she's going to Brazil long term and offers her a great firing package. She has to live clandestinely in the apartment Chloé has sub-rented to Gilles, while trying to think of a way to justify her inevitable return to France.
• Status Quo Is God: At the end of the first movie, Joséphine and Diane reconcile and Diane promises to be a little more chill. The second she learns that her sister is pregnant before her, she reverts back to her prissy, perfect golden child ways and The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry resumes.
• Struggling Single Mother: Alexandra has adopted a child in the second movie, and doesn't have time for anything; she agrees to rehire Joséphine on the condition that she'll babysit.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Played With and eventually averted. Julien has a weekly affair with Joséphine, who knows that he's married but convinces herself that it's okay since he's planning to divorce soon anyway and doesn't because his wife is very depressed. Early in the movie, she realizes that not only his wife is in perfect health and they're still close, they have a child. She later turns to him in a friendly way when she gets caught in her Snowball Lie, but finally realizes how much of an ass he is when she sees how much being cheated on will hurt her sister and how much it hurt Julien's wife. When said wife finally throws him out, she allows him to crash on her sofa for a few weeks, tolerating his presence more than happy about it. He tries to get with her, but she's no longer interested.
• Old Maid: Diane is relieved to get married and eager to put a baby in the oven as soon as possible, as she was starting to feel like an old maid at 27. Her mother had Joséphine at only 19.
• Pet the Dog: Joséphine's grandmother is the only relative who's nice to her. When Joséphine shows up uninvited to Diane's wedding to reveal that her fiancé is cheating on her, everyone chooses to ignore her, but her grandma gives her a thumbs up at least.
• Preppy Name: Joséphine itself, as she comes from a traditional bourgeois family; Diane, her sister, qualifies as well, though not as clearly.
• Put on a Bus: Chloé and Rose, Joséphine's friends. In the second movie, Chloé lives abroad and Rose is just gone.
• The Unfavorite: Joséphine is this to her parents, compared to her sister Diane.
• Weight Woe: Joséphine is quite bottom-heavy, and complexed about it. She's gained more weight in the second movie as a result of Gilles's home cooking (not accounting for her tendency to eat her emotions), but she's a (Hollywood Pudgy) Big Beautiful Woman to him.
  Joséphine, discussing her pregnancy: Cons: I was planning on losing ten kilos before getting pregnant. The ten kilos I put on because of you.
  Gilles: Well, I think you've never been more beautiful. And if you put on ten more, I'll count it as a pro.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Played with, and somewhat retroatively. Joséphine is fine with being the Other Woman, because Julien lied to her about the state of his marriage. She eventually forgives him, as she recognizes herself in his pathological lying. But when it turns out that her sister is being cheated on, she realizes how much pain Julien has caused his wife and gives him a stern "The Reason You Suck" Speech.