Henry Jaglom went to Venice to promote New Year's Day (1989) which was being shown as an official United States selection at the Venice Film Festival. This explains David Duchovny's presence in this film, as he was in New Year's Day also. Jaglom decided to take advantage of his trip by filming a movie there.
Henry Jaglom's character is shown here being friendly with director John Landis. Landis directed the first National Lampoon movie, 1978's National Lampoon's Animal House. Jaglom himself directed (half of) the second National Lampoon movie, 1982's Movie Madness.
One of seven theatrical feature films of writer-director Henry Jaglom in which he also has an acting role. These movies are [in order]: Sitting Ducks (1980), Always (1985), Someone to Love (1987), New Year's Day (1989), Venice/Venice (1992), Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995) and Hollywood Dreams (2006).