The film was seen as a return by director Claude Miller to the material of his first feature, La meilleure façon de marcher (1976).
The film was a loose adaptation of the novel The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, although that is uncredited. Director Claude Miller has claimed that the film is inspired by his and his wife's personal memories and various books they've read, and said in an interview "It isn't a direct adaptation. There were just enough elements from the book for us to apply for the rights. First of all the Americans who owned them took ages to reply. Then they wanted a huge sum of money, almost as much as the cost of the film." Two weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin, the rights had not been secured so Miller decided to go ahead and make the movie anyway and McCullers' heirs hit the film with a lawsuit. "Now we're negotiating to pay a reasonable percentage," he said in 1986. "Fortunately the film has been a hit."
Claude Miller cast Charlotte Gainsbourg after seeing her in her first film, Paroles et musique (1984). He approached her parents, English actress Jane Birkin and French singer, songwriter and filmmaker Serge Gainsbourg, for permission to cast her. It helped the marketability of the movie because, as Miller says, "Charlotte was in a way already a star because of her parents. People went to see her out of curiosity."
Was the 11th most successful film of the year at the French box office.