The Green Years (1963) - Paulo Rocha

​Paulo Rocha's The Green Years traverses the archetypical story of young love in the big city to deliver a piercing and potent examination of darker aspects of urbanization, detailing the fracturing of community and despondency in which bodies are dehumanized, commodified, and placed into a perpetual state of competition, beholden to the promises and ultimately deceptions of decadency.  Set in Lisbon, the story details a young man who has left the agrarian lifestyle and moved to the big city, seeking a better life for himself.  Rocha's visual construction of urban spaces provides an early hint into the film's thematic intentions - the spaces of the city consume frame, often evoking a sense of claustrophobia, yet early on, the film exists in a space in which a better life feels absolutely attainable, as the allure of decadence brought by industrialization provides a sense of hope.  As the film progresses, the individual pursuit for the attainment of this promise creates schisms, Lisbon and its people are showcased as being perpetually at odds with themselves and each other, struggling to find their identity in this new urban space - the juxtaposition of the allure of the big city with the trials & tribulations of attempting to eke out a meaningful life is displayed with a searing yet empathetic lens.  For Rocha, the disruption of community-driven by transnational economic progress is too much to bear, the competition and schism it manifests are not worth the material rewards