The movie is based on the play "Venus in Fur" by David Ives. In the play, both Vanda Jordan and the character Wanda von Dunayev are 24 years old. The lines referencing the characters age were cut from the film. Emmanuelle Seigner was in her late 40s during filming.
Roman Polanski's first non-English-language feature in 51 years.
This version relocates the story from New York to Paris. One of the main reasons for the change was because Roman Polanski wanted to work with his wife in her native tongue French, something they had never done before.
Emmanuelle Seigner could only shoot her scenes by day because she was appearing at night on stage in an acclaimed revival of Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming."