_Breve cielo_ (1969) is one of my favorite films. It was my introduction to the work of David José Kohon. _Prisioneros de una noche_, the director's first feature film (made in 1960 but released after his second feature film, hence the difference in order on imdb), announces many of the elements that would be brought to near perfection in the later film.
Martín Sánchez (Alfredo Alcón) is a "grupí": in Argentinean slang, a fake buyer who keeps raising the price at auctions, to help the sellers. Elsa Portela (María Vaner) is a paid dancer at an academy. They meet by chance and they immediately hit it off, but Elsa appears to be hiding something. Martín is interested, nevertheless, and he promises to go see her at the academy soon. The film follows the adventures of the couple as they hang out one night in Buenos Aires. A mysterious figure, Roberto Brenda (Osvaldo Terranova), is after Elsa and threatens to ruin her chance at true love.
Like _Breve cielo_, _Prisioneros de una noche_ is a story of star-crossed lovers. Both films feature Buenos Aires as a character, as the camera follows the couple along the city streets. _Breve cielo_ featured many day scenes; _Prisioneros de una noche_, as the title suggests, takes place primarily at night. The latter is the darker film of the two. The inner threat to love that we see in _Breve cielo_ is an actual, real presence in _Prisioneros de una noche_, embodied in the figure of the criminal Brenda. Martín and Elsa, furthermore, are not teenagers like Delia and Paquito. Their world is the world of responsibilities and work, a world without the possibility of innocence.
Three elements make this an excellent film: Kohon's perspective, and Alcón's and Vaner's performances. While I personally prefer _Breve cielo_ (merely because I feel closer to the characters), _Prisioneros de una noche_ marks the brilliant beginning of an evenly luminous cinematic career.
