This film is François Truffaut's homage to Alfred Hitchcock, made shortly after Truffaut had published a book of extensive interviews with Hitchcock. As part of his homage, Truffaut chose a novel written by Cornell Woolrich, on whose story Hitchcock's La finestra sul cortile (1954) was based, and even chose long-time Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann to compose the score.
The second and final collaboration between François Truffaut and composer Bernard Herrmann. Unlike their previous experience on Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Truffaut was not entirely happy with the score. For one key scene he replaced Herrmann's music with a pre-recorded snippet of a Vivaldi concerto. After this film Truffaut resumed working with his favorite musical collaborator, Georges Delerue.
The record that Julie plays is the first movement of Antonio Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C major, unknown recording,
This film is the inspiration for the Kate Bush song "The Wedding List" from her 1980 album Never For Ever.
Alfred Hitchcock wrote François Truffaut, saying "I especially liked the scene of Moreau watching the man who had taken poison Arak dying slowly. I think my particular sense of humour might have taken them a little further so that Moreau could have picked up a cushion and put it under his head so that he could die with more comfort."