Jim McCarthy

Bernie works at a Las Vegas casino, where he uses his innate ability to bring about misfortune in those around him to jinx gamblers into losing. His imposing boss, Shelly Kaplow, is happy with the arrangement. But Bernie finds unexpected happiness when he begins dating attractive waitress Natalie Belisario.

Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a British consul living in alcoholic disrepair and obscurity in a small southern Mexican town in 1939. The consul's self-destructive behaviour, perhaps a metaphor for a menaced civilization, is a source of perplexity and sadness to his nomadic, idealistic half-brother, Hugh, and his ex-wife, Yvonne, who has returned with hopes of healing Geoffrey and their broken marriage.

"Holly HARDMAN White Trash at Heart (1992; 33 min.) An uproarious romp through the twisted byways of Lynch-land, er Holy-Sin-land, USA. "A savvy satire kept buoyant by its energy and swift pace it takes Lynch's sledgehammer technique to its illogical limits." Shock Cinema Stars Holly Angell Hardman; music by the Workdogs, Poison Idea, Big Stick, A-Bones, others." From the MWF catalogue.