The movie is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. Director Arnaud Desplechin had read the book and gave copies of it to the crew of Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) (1996). For the DVD bonuses of Rois et reine (2004), he shot and played in the final scene opposite Emmanuelle Devos. Roth saw the bonus and called him to tell him to adapt the book into a movie. He tried over the years but failed, and even thought of doing it as a play with actor Denis Podalydès. Eventually, he tried again during the spring 2020 lockdown in France, and something clicked.
The movie was shot in the September 2020, between the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in France, with only a few actors and a very tight budget: 153,000 EUR at the start of post-production.
This is the second time Léa Seydoux stars in an Arnaud Desplechin film; the first was Roubaix, une lumière (2019).
In one scene, Léa Seydoux's character mentioned that she had blue hair when she was younger. This could be a reference to Seydoux's famous role in La vie d'Adèle (2013).