Many different reasons converged in my decision to write and shoot a movie focused on the unusual subject of table soccer or foosball. I used to have a foosball table when I was a kid, but then we got rid of it and I did not play again until my travels during my college years. In every country or city that I would visit when I was a film student, I would find a foosball table and would try out my luck. Oddly enough, for someone who didn't practice, I could still play decently, be very competitive and have fun. But the game I was really passionate about was pool. Not only I loved pool, but I loved pool movies. Not strangely, my first screen hero had been Fast Eddie Felson (The Hustler, 1961) until he was replaced by Vincent Lauria (The Color of Money, 1986).
Yet, something that bothered me about pool movies (and poker movies and other similarly-themed movies) is that always the main objective of the characters is to cheat, fool, hustle and win at all costs. Eddie Felson says in The Color of Money that "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned," and I never agreed with that principle. Not even to the idea that someone has to prove to be the best or earn a championship in order to be happy. Thus, I always felt that there was a movie missing in this genre, a movie in which the protagonists would play a game because they love it, because they want to relate to other people and because it allows them to escape from the outside world. These are my principles when I play pool or foosball and when I make movies.
I didn't want to choose pool as the subject matter of my film because the table is enormous, it's an extremely difficult game to master and because it has been done so many times and so well. I figured that the smaller and simpler game of foosball was more adequate for me and my modest resources. Most importantly, foosball has this connection with innocence (because it's mostly seen as a big toy for children) that was perfect for exploring the themes explained earlier. Also, the foosball table itself, in which the players stand still, close to each other, makes it a more intimate space. It becomes more personal and less theatrical than pool. Interestingly, the foosball table becomes the set and the location. Unlike pool, where players take turns, in foosball 4 players are active simultaneously. It's a tiny arena for plastic gladiators.
Because of these connections to innocence, purity and childhood, the characters of my movie (people in their late twenties and early thirties) have a chance to become children for a night and escape the drama of their regular lives. That's why Duke (Tim Rozon) loves this game: he's able to become the big kid of the party, admired by everyone, instead of the little man he feels in his job and his life. Everything is perfect and under his control. What he doesn't expect is that two outsiders will appear and shake up his controlled little world: Julianne (France Viens) and Anthony (Randy Thomas).
From this moment on, the point of view that I chose to follow is Julianne's, in order to switch from the usual male POV of pool and poker movies (and most sports tournament movies). Beyond movies, in real life, men become too competitive, alienating women and highlighting that the emphasis is on winning rather than on having fun. In one of my foreign trips I ended up in college dorm that had a foosball table. After a while I had beaten up all the local men, so no one wanted to challenge me. I approached a female student and invited her to play and she said "No, because you're too competitive". That I night I had become my hero, Vincent Lauria, yet I felt unsatisfied and alienated. This anecdote was the strongest reason for selecting Julianne to carry on the story. Only that in my movie, the woman would not only confront the ultra competitive men, but would focus on going the distance (as Rocky Balboa would say) while enjoying herself. Every tournament movie needs an underdog, and in this case, it is Julianne.
Duke is also an underdog, not in regards to foosball, but in his normal life and for winning the attention of a refined, interesting and beautiful woman, who's already in a relationship with a possessive and aggressive man. Instead of a trophy or money, Duke will compete for Julianne's attention and love. Therefore, drama has arrived, and, along with it, romance. Two different worlds, seemingly strangers to each other, collide and connect at the foosball table.
