Romy Schneider received the inaugural "César Award for Best Actress" for this role, and Pedro Almodóvar dedicated his film All About My Mother (1999) partially to her in this role.
Christopher Frank, the author of the source material, told Andrzej Zulawski of his film, "It is not my novel, but it is a masterpiece".
The success in France was such - it was featuring the very popular actress Romy Schneider and French singer Jacques Dutronc - that it allowed Zulawski to come back to Poland.
Based on the novel by Christopher Frank, "La Nuit américaine" which is unrelated to the 1973 François Truffaut film of that name.