Catherine Deneuve was hesitant at first to play the character of a woman falling in love for another woman, but Andre Techine managed to convince her.
The fragmented structure of the film has been compared to a William Faulkner's novel, particularly to The Sound and the Fury (1929). The narrative - consisting of a prologue, five sections, and an epilogue - leaps around in time and switches between the viewpoints of Justin, Alex, Marie, and Juliette. The Sound and the Fury unfolds over four days, likewise, switching narrative perspectives. Both The Sound and the Fury and Thieves also have a central female character who is loved obsessively by two of the narrators: Faulkner's novel has Caddie, who is loved by her brothers Benjy and Quentin, and Téchiné's film has Juliette, who is the love interest of both Alex and Marie. The divided time structure emphasize the inter-lapping relationships between the characters.
The student who stops Marie (Catherine Deneuve), and asks a question about Heraclitus is Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve's daughter.
The song "Douha alia" by Cheb Mami which plays in a few scenes is about a man whose lover is "taken away" by police.
Considering the fact that André Techine's former mentor is Roland Barthes, Barthes' book "Fragments: A Lover's Discourse" often seems echoed in Marie's reflections about her former student, whose tape-recorded autobiographical musings form the basis of a book Marie writes.