Loser Takes All

Jacques is a shark of the gambling dens, a professional player who has a history of trouble with casinos. Shall we say, he can be a little disruptive.
Angele is a captain of the security branch of the police force, director of the Gambling Squad. She represents order.
Fate is their main enemy, love their best ally. They’ve been having a secret affair for several years. A cop with a crook doesn’t sit well, both on the cops’ and crooks’ side of the fence.
When Serge Vaudier, an obscure mathematics professor, suddenly wins the Lotto two times running, claiming that he’s found an infallible mathematical solution, he poses a mystery to the whole world. Even more so when a crazy promoter takes over the ordinary and insignificant professor’s destiny and immediately transforms him into an international star. Money pours in and crowds flock, seeing Vaudier as a new money guru.
Why bother wearing yourself out filling in Lotto slips if Vaudier’s going to win each time? No one bothers playing anymore, the state gambling control organization loses millions of euros, tax revenues plummet, the Secretary of the Treasury is in dire straits, croupiers are going out of business. The security branch only has a few days to unmask the imposter. Statistically, the probability of winning Lotto two consecutive times without cheating is minute. So, is he a crook or a genius?
Traditional investigation methods reveal nothing and Angele is obliged to call in a gambler, the only person who can penetrate Vaudier’s psychological makeup and expose him. Jacques enters the game and his relationship with Angele comes under the spotlight. From casino back rooms to the wings of Lotto games, from loaded decks to poker losses, a game unfolds and no one seems to know its rules.
At the end, spectators, discovering that a film about the world of gambling and game playing couldn’t be anything but another kind of game, will understand that they’ve also been participants right from the beginning.

• Type : Feature film
• Genres : Fiction
  
• Sub-genre : Romantic comedy, Crime/thriller
  
• Production language : French
• Production country : France
• Original French-language productions : Unspecified
  
• Nationality : 100% French (France)
  
• Production year : 2004
• French release : 23/06/2004
  
• Runtime : 1 h 32 min
  
• Current status : Released
  
• Visa number : 99.698
  
• Visa issue date : 03/06/2004
  
• Approval : Yes
  
• Production formats : 35mm
• Color type : Color
  
• Aspect ratio : CinemaScope
  
• Audio format : Dolby DTS