The house, the film's main location, is the house director Marco Bellocchio spent his childhood days in.
Director Marco Bellocchio borrowed money from his family to be able to make this film, which is actually a frontal assault on family values.
The film premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival. It was loved by young critics, loathed with equal passion by the Catholic establishment and earned huffy put-downs from Luis Buñuel and Michelangelo Antonioni, two heroes of director Marco Bellocchio.
Lou Castel was not a professional actor, but an acquaintance of director Marco Bellocchio. The two met through mutual membership in the Italian Communist Party.
Lou Castel wasn't fluent in Italian during filming. He learned his lines phonetically, and was later re-dubbed by Paolo Carlini.