When deciding how to translate Desdemona’s “Willow” song into the world of Desdemona Moore, I couldn’t help but think of Jack Clayton’s 1961 film “The Innocents.” This idea or narrative of the excluded child and the child that is continually silenced is a reoccurring theme in MOORE. Desdemona is constantly being removed from the world of the adults: in General Yoo’s office, in the briefing room in Okinawa, she is never allowed to be privy to the world of the “adults” (the room where it happens) at least not until she finally forces her way into that fatal room of adult knowledge – the room where we meet our own death. It was this feeling of foreboding that led me back to Henry James’ Turn of the Screw and the Innocents. The opening sequence of Jack Clayton’s film has haunted me since I was a child. The little girl, Pamela Franklin, singing “O Willow Waly” with only the black background is as eerie and ghostly as it gets. As I began to research further, I learned of the connection between the song “O Willow Waly” and the Willow song Desdemona sings in Shakespeare’s Othello. Another reason I decided to incorporate the film itself into MOORE was that Deborah Kerr also haunts another film that is closely tied to American imperialism in the Pacific and the Hollywood orientalist gaze: “The King and I.” Below, I have included a short and very interesting documentary with insights and information about the making of the 1961 film “The Innocents,” a ghost story based on the Henry James novel “The Turn Of The Screw,” for more perspective. It is through this lens we can catch a glimpse of Desdemona Moore’s past and foresee her inevitable future.
