Eduardo Serra, who scored Best Cinematography Oscar nominations for Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Wings of the Dove and also lensed the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films, Unbreakable and many others during a five-decade career, died August 19. He was 81.
The Portuguese Cinema Academy announced the news but did not provide other details.
Born on October 2, 1943, in Lisbon, Serra got his start working as a camera assistant in Paris before making his cinematographer feature debut on the 1983 pic Sem Sombra de Pecado. He went on to become a sought-after lensman in France, working with some big-name directors. He shot seven films for Claude Chabrol, from 1990’s The Haridresser’s Husband to 2013’s A Promise, which would be his final DP credit.
His most famous work — and certainly his most successful — was David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Shot back-to-back to wrap up the lucrative franchise, Part 1 was released in 2010, followed by Part II the following year. They combined to gross more than $2.3 billion worldwide.
Along with his Oscar-nominated Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) and The Wings of the Dove (1997), his many other films as cinematographer include Michael Winterbottom’s Jude (1996), Vincent Ward’s What Dreams May Come (1998), Kevin Spacey’s Beyond the Sea, Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond (2006) and Defiance (2008) and M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable (2000).
“I must say that working with Night was a fascinating and wonderful experience,” Serra said in a 2000 interview with American Cinematographer. “He doesn’t work in the traditional, classic American way of shooting a master shot and then doing plenty of closer shots just in case. He doesn’t really do coverage; he has very long, composed shots, and everything is carefully storyboarded. Although we certainly changed [some] things, most of the time we followed the storyboard. His approach combines the best of both worlds: America and Europe.”
The only Portuguese person to earned two Best Cinematography Oscar noms, Serra also is a three-time Camerimage prize winner and recipient of the American Society of Cinematographers’ 2014 International Award.
