The film was shot in the summer of 1936 but was not released until 10 years later in a 40-minute, unfinished version.
Future leading directors Jacques Becker and Luchino Visconti worked as Jean Renoir's assistant directors.
Despite being unfinished, the film was always designed to be a short film. Only two scenes from the shooting script were not filmed. One would have been the first scene in the film, and it would show that the family got the carriage from a neighbor who was a milkman. The other would have involved them returning to the neighbor. These scenes would have set up the social class of the characters.
Famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, 28 years old at the time, worked as the second assistant to director Jean Renoir.