WORKERS A LITTLE BIT NOTEBOOK OF SCHMALZ

EXPENSIVE The average price for a building, plot last year was £5,000 and the average price for an acre was over £25,000.

There was a wide variation between areas-in Surrey an acre cost over £100,000, while in parts of Yokshire the price was under £10,000.

A plot of 4,027 square yards at Mere, in Cheshire, brought £12,500. A plot of land big enough for four houses in Altrincham, Cheshire, sold for £26,000 and two plots at Southport cost £31,345 and £25,320.

Transactions in house-building land last year totalled more than £70m.

The figures are contained in the first issue of the Digest of Building Land Prices sponsored jointly by the Housebuilders' Federation and the 'Estates Gazette' DENIED Intense speculation surrounds the appointment of a new deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard.

Normally such posts are filled by promotion from the ranks. Sir Robert Mark, the new i Police Commissioner (below), is advertising outside the 'Old Bill' industry. In 'Minnie and Moskovitz', John Cassavetes examines some of the problems created for human behaviour by inhibitions and stereotype expectations.

Minnie is an attractive city art museum employee who is having a hopeless, unhappy love affair with a married man with three children.

Moskovitz is a manic, extrovert, near-hippy, New York Jewish, car park attendant who comes to California for no reason after borrowing the air fare from his manic, extrovert, New York Jewish mum.

Moskovitz is very tolerant, talks to everybody—usually in a very loud voice-goes up to complete strangers in pubs and jollies them up a bit; in fact he's a real pain in the arse.

Minnie, on the other hand, is adorable, kind and intelligent. And early in the film she is released from the clutches of the married man she dotes on and leaves him with a punch on the nose.

Min and Mos meet when he rescues her from Zelmo, a completely insane person who has taken her to lunch on a blind date.

Although they don't know it, Min and Mos have something in common—a liking for Humphrey Bogart's screen heroes.

Minnie complains to an older friend that the movie. instilled notion of the ideal romance has ruined her for the very ordinary types she meets in reality.

Moskovitz, on the other hand, presumably imagines that his 'easy going' ways are pure Bogart.

Minnie does not find them so. In fact, she thinks Moskovitz is as insane as Zelmo and has to escape for the second time in one lunch hour.

But her own general misery, and Moskovitz's incorrigible thick skin, eventually wear her down and she dates the carparking ace.

But every date causes her some new excruciating embarrassment because of his unconventional behaviour.

Moskovitz's irrepressible manic outwardgoingness, however, proves to be the stronger life force, we are led to believe, and Minnie persuades herself, without much conviction, to marry him.

And it works, Cassavetes tells us in the final scene of their first child's first birthday party Min, Moss, baby, all the kids in the neighbourhood, and the two formerly up, thunder drama lightning posedly the builds is added for effect. Enter a group of (phoney) demonstrators intent on blocking the traffic, the jam builds up, the thunder crashes. The camera pans away from the scene revealing a cardboard model of the Colosseum suitably illuminated by stage lighting. It's really very bad.

Another ludicrous episode takes place underground The Romans are building a subway. The camera team goes down, which very fortunate because their first visit exactly coincides with the MOST exciting discovery of all. The workers drill their way into a perfect Roman palace and the film crew are first inside. frescoes just look at those breathes the continuity girl. She points to group the syle of toot rather in Boots 1972. 'Oh,' wails the girl, 'the air is destroying them.' And before our very eyes the 'priceless' wall paintings disintegrate (and very glad I was to see them vanish).

The flashbacks are little better. Fellini has a brilliant eye for period But his recreation of the 1930s in Rome is spoiled by an over-sentiblissfully happy due to the triumph of simplicity and honesty over sophistication and hypocrisy.

The film deals some good blows at the sad little fear: which lie behind most of our prejudices at. 'unconventional' find Moskovitz irritating and embarrassing, the fault is our own.

He is not afraid to be himself, and though it doesn't amount to very much, it puts him way ahead the others, who are afraid to be themselves, (i.e. they try to act with sophistication) but amount to even less in the end.

The trouble with the film is that too little of the real world penetrates into the psychological hang-ups of the people in it, as far as they are revealed to us.

All the inhibitions and manic behaviour are seen as entirely personal problems which are to be resolved or understood by looking deeper inside people's heads If you think about things differently and let yourself go. then things can different. And in the film, nothing ever does enter in from the outside world to change or challenge people's behaviour.

As in other Cassavetes' movies, life seems to be being viewed through a cushioning veil an alcoholic haze which softens all of the blows.

A lot of Moskovitz's escapades are likely to have been really painful to himself and to others-but they don't seem to be. Life with Cassavetes is just a little unbelievable.

Faults apart, the film still just holds the interest. Excellently acted all round.