ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the diverse functions of the opera excerpts in Match Point, with particular attention to the murder scene. In Match Point, however, opera is ubiquitous on the soundtrack, yet the excerpt used in the murder sequence from Verdi's Otello is distinguished from the other opera excerpts and creates special effects for the murder sequence. It shows how the Otello excerpt is distinctive in terms of the idiosyncratic way it evokes death, and the way it interacts with the fictional world, or diegesis, of the film in spite of its apparent extradiegetic status. Among the major studies it uses for a close analysis of the murder sequence are Jerrold Levinson's theory of the functions of film music and Claudia Gorbman's work, both of which focuses on narratological issues. It discusses some intriguing parallels between the murder scene in Allen's Match Point and that in Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie as an extension of Marcia Citron's discussion of the Orphic interplay.
