ट्रिविया

According to Pauline Kael, "what makes this movie so different from other movies about bourgeois life is that the director, Louis Malle, sees not only the prudent, punctilious surface but the volatile and slovenly life underneath. He looks at this bourgeois bestiary and sees it as funny and appalling and also - surprisingly - hardy and happy. It is perhaps the first time on film that anyone has shown us the bourgeoisie enjoying its privileges." Also for Kael, "it's a movie not about how one has been scarred but about how one was formed."

According to Roger Ebert, the film "isn't really about the boy, but the mother."

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

Upon submitting his screenplay, the National Center of Cinematography raised objections to the perverse erotic scenes. Louis Malle was surprised by the response. With the Censorship Board denying funding, the film was financed with the help of Mariane Film, a French subsidiary of Paramount Pictures.

In France, the film had 2,652,870 admissions.