“Naturally, at this moment, as we say goodbye to Eduardo Serra, we are, of course, saddened and regret the loss of a figure in Portuguese cinema who indeed had a very strong international presence,” stated Nuno Sena, the deputy director of the Cinematheque, in a statement.
Nuno Sena was reacting to the death of cinematographer Eduardo Serra at the age of 81, as announced by the Portuguese Academy of Cinema.
The deputy director of Cinematheque Portuguesa recalled the artist’s Oscar nominations and his involvement in “big-budget films,” notably two volumes of the Harry Potter saga, in addition to “many other participations in prestigious French productions, especially those of Claude Chabrol and Patrice Leconte.”
To Nuno Sena, Eduardo Serra “also remained an important name in Portuguese cinema because he was occasionally associated with directors and films that were very important to the history of national cinematography,” recalling, in this context, the mark he left on the works of João Mário Grilo (‘O Processo do Rei’) and ‘O Delfim’ by Fernando Lopes.
“Films that are essential works of Portuguese cinema and certainly owe part of their importance to the extraordinary work of Eduardo Serra,” he noted, also highlighting the significance of the first film he made in Portugal, ‘Sem Sombra de Pecado,’ which, in the cinematographer’s words, “was a film that also opened doors for him abroad.”
Recalling the “international dimension” of Eduardo Serra’s career, Nuno Sena considered him the professional who “opened doors for the internationalization of Portuguese technicians.”
Nuno Sena added that he never felt the cinematographer “putting himself forward, either in the interviews he gave or in the way he appeared publicly, to seem to put himself ahead of the films he made or ahead of the directors who made those films.”
“That discretion is a fair way to describe his temperament and his way of working,” he concluded.
Born in Lisbon in 1943, Eduardo Serra was twice nominated for the Oscars, for the films ‘Wings of the Dove’ by Iain Softley and ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Peter Webber, which earned him the BAFTA award from the British Academy of Film.
Eduardo Serra’s international career began in France, where he settled in 1963, following persecution for participating in protests against the dictatorship, recalls the Portuguese Academy of Cinema, which announced the cinematographer’s death on social media on Thursday night.
Among the films that marked his career are ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’, Parts 1 and 2, ‘Blood Diamond’ by Edward Zwick, ‘Belle du Seigneur’ by Glenio Bonder, and ‘A Promise’ by Patrice Leconte.
In Portuguese cinema, he was the director of photography for works such as ‘Sem Sombra de Pecado’ and ‘A Mulher do Próximo’ by José Fonseca e Costa, ‘O Processo do Rei’ by João Mário Grilo, ‘Amor e Dedinhos de Pé’ by Luís Filipe Rocha, and ‘O Delfim’ by Fernando Lopes.
Eduardo Serra received the ranks of Commander and Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, in 2004 and 2017, respectively, and the Sophia Career Award in 2014 from the Portuguese Academy of Cinema.
