The scene on the crowded street with Thana and the Photographer was filmed from a camera placed atop a parked van on Fifth Avenue that was manned by Abel Ferrara and covered with a tarp. The man and woman seen walking behind Thana and the Photographer are the female boom operator and a male crewman. The woman is clearly holding onto the man in a certain odd way to hide the microphone under the man's jacket to record the Photographer's speaking dialogue.
The name of Zoë Lund's character, Thana, is reminiscent of the Greek god of death, "Thanatos." Sigmund Freud used the word to refer to the "death drive," a subject's internal drive to return to an inorganic state.
In the scene where Thana leaves with her neighbor's dog, a red truck is seen circulating on the street, on whose front the name Ferrara is written.
Director Abel Ferrara specifically told composer Joe Delia to do a score that was both modern and atonal.