Christopher Reeve said of this film in his autobiography "Still Me" (1998): "[Producer] Ismail [Merchant] could only afford to pay me $100,000, less than a tenth of my established price at the time. I insisted that the money was not an issue, that this was the kind of work I ought to be doing, but my agent told me, 'If you do that picture with those wandering minstrels, it will be one foot in the grave of your career'. ... I cheerfully ignored their advice".
According to Margarita Landazuri at the Turner Classic Movies website, "...the origin of the term 'Boston Marriage', which in the late 19th century came to describe a marriage-like relationship between two women who live independently together without a man's support, is attributed to [Henry] James and his novel. James is believed to have drawn the inspiration for Olive and her fellow suffragettes from his sister Alice, who lived with another woman in a Boston marriage".
During filming, actress Madeleine Potter noticed that one of her costumes had the name "Nastassja Kinski" sewn into it. As it turned out, the dress had originally been made to be used in the movie Tess (1979).
Dame Vanessa Redgrave was director James Ivory's first choice for both the lead roles in Gli europei (1979) and I bostoniani (1984). With Gli europei (1979), Redgrave was unavailable due to other commitments, and with I bostoniani (1984), Redgrave originally declined, and Glenn Close was cast. Then Close withdrew, due to being offered Il migliore (1984), the part was then re-offered to Redgrave, who accepted.
Second of three film adaptations by Merchant Ivory Productions of novels by Henry James. The first had been Gli europei (1979) whilst the third was The Golden Bowl (2000). Each film was produced by Ismail Merchant, directed by James Ivory and had a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.