Director François Ozon wanted to make a remake of George Cukor's Femmes (1939) but he changed his mind and later found the play written by Robert Thomas.
This is the third time that Danielle Darrieux has played Catherine Deneuve's mother, following The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and Le lieu du crime (1986).
Pierette (Fanny Ardant) tells Augustine (Isabelle Huppert) that she looks like a woman from one of her romance novels, "La Dame Aux Camélias". Huppert actually played Alphonsine in Storia vera della signora dalle camelie, La (1980), an adaptation of that novel.
Although the film is set in the 1950s, the songs featured are later, all released between 1963 and 1987. "Papa t'es plus dans l'coup" is especially anachronistic, obviously being part of the yé-yé style of the early 60s.