Directed by: José Ramón Larraz
Stars: Laura Gemser, Bárbara Rey, José Sazatornil, Mila Stanic, Ángel Herraiz
Language: Spanish | Subtitles: English
Country: Spain | Italy | Imdb Info
Also known as: El periscopio, Malizia erotica, Malicia erótica
Description: In a comfortable apartment building, young Albert becomes fascinated by the arrival of two glamorous nurses living directly above his family. Curious about the mysterious sounds coming through the ceiling and armed with the practical knowledge of a school science project, he builds a homemade periscope that allows him to keep an eye on the upstairs apartment.
What he discovers turns his ordinary home life into a private comedy of curiosity, fantasy, and increasingly awkward misunderstandings. The two nurses — played by Laura Gemser and Bárbara Rey — seem to inhabit a far more carefree world than the one downstairs, where Albert’s parents are already tangled in their own domestic absurdities. His vain father spends more energy worrying about his thinning hair than noticing what is happening around him, while his mother tries to conceal an affair and explain the sudden appearance of an expensive fur coat without raising suspicion.
As the separate schemes begin to overlap, the apartment building becomes a maze of badly timed entrances, improvised excuses, and secrets that refuse to stay hidden. Albert’s periscope may provide the film with its central visual joke, but the adults are hardly innocent observers. Everyone is watching someone, hiding something, or desperately trying to maintain an appearance of respectability while their private lives drift into chaos.
Rather than the shadowy country houses and psychological unease usually associated with José Ramón Larraz, …And Give Us Our Daily Sex finds the director working in a lighter, more playful register. The result is an uneven but cheerfully shameless Euro sex comedy: part domestic farce, part voyeuristic bedroom romp, and part late-70s time capsule of a society discovering that the neighbors upstairs may be having a much more interesting week than anyone downstairs.
Legacy Note:
…And Give Us Our Daily Sex is a curious detour in the filmography of José Ramón Larraz, the director better known for atmospheric cult titles such as Vampyres, Symptoms, and The Coming of Sin. Built around the wonderfully literal gimmick promised by its original title, El periscopio, the film trades gothic dread for apartment-house comedy while retaining Larraz’s recurring fascination with voyeurism, fantasy, and private desire. With Laura Gemser and Bárbara Rey bringing unmistakable Eurocult appeal, it survives as a scruffy, playful artifact of Spain’s post-censorship destape era.
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