Film Noir and Story

This really fascinated me when I came upon it. It's an analysis of Fritz Lang's 1945 film "Scarlet Street," and this particular scene really corresponds to a story I've been thinking about. The idea of Chris (Edward G. Robinson) as "the dupe," the guy who blindly follows along, the guy who chooses to ignore the signs directly in front of him, is just like the protagonist of a story that I've been toying with for a few years now, except in my story the protagonist is a woman. The story focuses on the idea that you can choose to accept or ignore certain things in life, just like you can accept or disregard certain items on the cafeteria line, and it's often the decision that reveals the most about us. In the story, the woman is left with a decision: Should she accept or ignore her husband's abandonment of her mother at a crucial medical moment, or should she confront him. If she does, what are the ramifications?

I think that's what interests me. So many of us choose to let certain things go, in effect not choosing to look the devil in the eye, but, rather, to accept what is offered up and treat it like manna from Heaven. In the turning of the eye, we lose the full experience of life, and thereby commiserate in our own dissatisfaction.

It's funny how dormant ideas can spring back to life in the seeming blink of an eye! Onto the writing!