Sandrine Bonnaire showed up expecting only an extra role, as she had done in La Boum, for a project called Meurtrières; Pialat decided instead to offer her the lead and adapted the screenplay to expand her character.

Casting director Dominique Besnehard originally considered Robin Renucci for the role of Suzanne's brother Robert, but Pialat suggested Besnehard himself take the part.

In the original script the father was supposed to die and not reappear for the dinner scene, but Pialat suddenly showed up in the scene himself and let the actors improvise in a situation they had not anticipated.

The 'dimple scene' was meant to be the final moment between Suzanne and her father, with her noticing his yellowing eye as a subtle sign of his impending death.

Sandrine Bonnaire herself introduced actor Tom Stevens, who plays the American in the film, to Pialat after meeting him during a brief vacation in England; the two actors later became engaged for two years.

The film originated from Arlette Langmann's 1970s screenplay Les filles du faubourg, set in the 1960s and originally envisioned as a three- to four-hour film about a Polish Jewish family, before Pialat trimmed it down for budget reasons and moved the setting to the present day.

The soundtrack was composed by Klaus Nomi, featuring his signature song 'The Cold Song'.

The film features several behind-the-scenes crew members in acting roles: director Maurice Pialat plays the father, casting director Dominique Besnehard plays Robert, and screenwriter Jacques Fieschi also appears on screen; it also marks actor-director Cyril Collard's first screen appearance.