Film critic Roger Ebert described this film as "...sort of a source study for the Paris of Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s; it's a movie about the raw material he shaped into 'The Sun Also Rises' and 'A Moveable Feast', and it also includes raw material for books by Gertrude Stein, Malcolm Cowley and Clifford Irving".
Actress Linda Fiorentino replaced Meg Tilly in the part of Rachel Stone. Tilly was going to play Stone, but withdrew due to scheduling conflicts, before Fiorentino eventually signed on.
Mick Jagger and Sam Shepard turned down the role of Bertram Stone, where it eventually went to John Lone.
Writer-director Alan Rudolph once described the film's script as "the most rejected screenplay in Hollywood".