The picture was inspired and influenced by Luis Buñuel's surrealist film The Exterminating Angel (1962) ["The Exterminating Angel"], made and released about a decade after that picture, and of which the story of this film is considered to be that movie in reverse.
First American film of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and production house Merchant Ivory Productions.
The film screened out-of-competition at the Cannes Film Festival during May 1972 and according to the movie's DVD sleeves notes "was the most talked about film" at the fest there.
The script was unfinished when the production shoot started with only about two thirds of the screenplay completed.