The film was released eight weeks before Gerard Philippe's sudden death.
Annette Stroyberg was married to director Roger Vadim at the time of shooting.
Gillian Hills was originally cast as Cecile but since she was only fourteen years old there was an outcry since the role involved nudity. She was recast in a smaller role and producers cast Jeanne Valérie, who would have been 17 or 18 during production, to play Cecile.
Another version, retaining the eighteenth-century setting of the novel, was directed by Milos Forman, but it did not appear until 1989, by which time it had to cope with the great popularity both of the stage adaptation by Christopher Hampton and the film version of that play directed by Stephen Frears. Some critics believed that Forman's film was the best of the three, but it was a box-office failure.
Gillian Hills's debut.