"Film Noir," by Tracy Rubert

I confess I was attracted by this title. I love the movie genre. Too many favorites to name them all: Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, Big Sleep, Leave Her to Heaven. On the screen, I love the shadows, the tension and violence looming around every corner, suggested by a floating curtain, and teased with every curl of cigarette smoke. In this story, the writer creates a clever moment, a story in a story while watching a movie on video. She recognizes the actor. He’s her former lover. She toggles back and forth between the script in the film and her memories revisited. Alas, there’s no femme fatale in this story but there is a sense of being wronged and powerless beyond the plastic remote in her hand. Read it here in Big Bridge.