Play Misty for me (1971)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1971
	Director: Clint Eastwood (The Gauntlet, Gran Torino)
	Actors: Clint Eastwood (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), Jessica Walter, Donna Mills
	Country: USA
	Genre: Romance, Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 12.05.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Dave (Eastwood) is animating a radio music show which leads him to meet Evelyn (Walter), a fan he will have trouble getting away from.
Review: I came across this box-set gathering movies with and/or by Clint Eastwood from 1969 to 1975 and was immediately interested (see image at the end of this post). It contains movies that I have never seen or not in decades: Joe Kidd, Play Misty for me, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Breezy, The Beguiled and The Eiger Sanction. I started with the movie which is actually the first one he ever directed and in which he plays as well: Play Misty for me. The title vaguely reminded me something, and in fact it was the typical movie I was watching with my father on TV when I was actually too young for it. Now I get to appreciate it to a whole different level as I have grown to love movies from that period and this one contains all the right elements: jazzy music, long silent introduction scene... and the main characters are artists: Clint Eastwood playing a DJ and dating a sculptor lady. The DJ in a house along the sea may have influenced John Carpenter for The Fog. So I like the style of the movie and the Blu-ray transfer is of good quality but I can criticize that the optical quality of the lenses used is not always very good (blurry away from the center), as I had notice in another movie: The Final Countdown (same lenses?). Also, during most of the night scenes, it is too obvious that they were shot during the day and underexposed (or using density filters). I have heard about this process in the past and it works under some circumstances, you believe the shot was taken under full moon, but it is used too much in this movie and is too obvious because of bright reflexions on cars for example. Play Misty for me seems bipolar, switching between romantic scenes that I find badly written and too cheesy (including unrealistic Hollywood kisses) and utterly stressing scenes of harassment by Evelyn played to the perfection by Jessica Walter. I got really nervous just by watching the movie, imagining how horrible it can become not to be able to get rid of someone: I found that more terrifying than most horror movies! But then I could breathe during the cheesy romantic scenes, actually playing their role. For more stress in the same register I may want to watch Fatal Attraction with Glenn Close and Michael Douglas.
Rating: 6 /10