Kohon's first film in color is both a continuation and a departure. Like the director's previous films, this is a story of marginal characters (specifically, of a man and a woman), but in terms of genre, it is an example of film noir, in contrast to the urban realism of _Breve cielo_ (1969) and _Prisioneros de una noche_ (1960).
El Flaco (Norberto Aroldi), a thief, and Vilma (María Aurelia Bisutti), a prostitute, share a small apartment in Buenos Aires. Their bond is strong and complicated. One day, on a whim, they steal a car and race other vehicles, stopping once to rob a rich old lady of an expensive brooch she is wearing. El Flaco and Vilma end up in prison, but she soon gets out. Gustavo (José María Langlais), a rich architect she once helped has bailed her out, but of course, he expects something in return. While el Flaco serves time, Vilma realizes she has moved from one form of confinement to another. Both of them long for their lost freedom, and for each other.
Aroldi and Bisutti are great as reckless, self-destructive lovers. Bisutti gave a memorable performance as a good, respectable girl in _Los de la mesa 10_ (Simón Feldman, 1960), and she is equally convincing here as a woman of the night. Vilma may well be what Delia, Ana María Picchio's character in _Breve cielo_, eventually becomes.
_Con alma y vida_ is more ambitious than Kohon's previous films. It features car chases and shootouts, and the setting switches at one point from Buenos Aires to Punta del Este, Uruguay. The result, however, is not entirely satisfactory. The film is marred by melodrama, and there are even weak spots in the script. The character of Gustavo, for instance, disappears in the middle of the film. Finally, the movie is commercial and follows genre conventions, two things that the "generación del 60" (to which Kohon belonged) shunned, as it espoused artistic freedom.
It seems that with _Con alma y vida_ Kohon was trying something different. Fortunately, he would then abandon film noir and find a different and much more interesting approach. Seven years would pass before he made his next film, _¿Qué es el otoño?_, but this one was worth the wait. _Con alma y vida_ is not a bad film, and it's definitely Kohon, but it is in _Breve cielo_ and in _Tres veces Ana_ (1961) that one sees this director at his best.
