Lisbon. Villager Julio (19) arrives to the city via the main train terminal to stay with his uncle Afonso, who secured him a job as an apprentice at the shoemaker Raul. Julio meets maid Ilda and they start a relationship. Julio is both fascinated and overwhelmed by the metropolis. When Afonso tells him he shouldn't see Ilda anymore, Julio starts a fight with him in a pub, but is saved by a British tourist. Julio proposes Ilda, but she refuses because he doesn't have enough money for them to live alone. Julio arrives one evening at the apartment of Ilda's boss, telling he wants to talk to her. When the boss leaves them alone, Julio stabs Ilda with a knife and flees on the street.
Voted in one local poll as the best Portuguese film of the 20th century, "The Green Years" is an intelligent, calm, restrained and subtle depiction of a clash between the rural and urban mentalities, but it is still fairly overrated and dull. The director Paulo Rocha depicts the change of the 19-year old protagonist Julio from an innocent, introverted, humble lad from the village at the beginning up to an extroverted, aggressive and spoiled brat in the end, caused by his life in the metropolis. It speaks about the unspoken psychological currents urban people are unaware off, since this is simply the hectic way of life in the cities. Some contemplations about certain life observations are clever, for instance: "But when you become a man, it's a different kind of romance. The kind of that forces you to straighten out your life, to the point that others can't mess it up" or: "For him, the only man who is not a fool is the one who makes fools of others." The main weight of the film is the love story between Julio and Ilda (very good Isabel Ruth), but it is of varying success, since some episodes are monotone and grey, while others are more interesting (for instance, the sequence where Ilda proudly wears all the fancy dresses of her boss for Julio). Unfortunately, despite these formalities, the movie is not that engaging in its substance, which is a tad too bland, since "The Green Years" are never quite able to "heat up" the inclination of the viewers, not even in the drastic ending which feels more like a stunt than a real conclusion to this story.
Grade:++
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