Creezy

Alain Delon stars as Julien Dandieu, an up-and-coming French politician torn between his career and a romantic entanglement that might derail it in this slick but weightless 1974 melodrama. We follow Dandieu, the head of a left-wing party, over the course of a day as he ponders the offer of a cabinet position in a coalition government; he needs all the support his patron Renee (Jeanne Moreau), the widow of the party's founder, can provide to overcome the scruples of its more principled members. We also glimpse Julien's dysfunctional home life, which includes a wife hospitalized after a breakdown and an estranged son--a young radical who condemns the compromises his father is willing to make for advancement. Meanwhile, frequent flashbacks reveal Dandieu's tempestuous affair with Creezy (Sydne Rome), a voluptuous, demanding, yet vulnerable model. The purpose of all this rigmarole is presumably to dramatize the torturous choice Julien must make between ambition and love, but Creezy amounts to nothing more than glossy pulp, in which the usually reliable Delon seems uncomfortably stiff and Rome exhibits little talent for anything but disrobing on cue. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)