Jacques Tati borrowed dogs from a local pound for the film and took care of the dogs all through filming. Tati made several shots of them, which he later used to connect scenes. When filming was over, he didn't want to bring the dogs back to the pound, so he placed an advertisement in the newspaper, calling them "movie stars"; all dogs eventually were taken in by respectable families throughout Paris.
Having been awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Film for this film, Jacques Tati was invited to a state reception where he was introduced to French President Charles de Gaulle. As a joke and as a reference to the film, Minister of Culture André Malraux introduced him as "mon oncle". De Gaulle, not realizing who the director was or what film he had made, congratulated him on having a talented nephew.
Widely considered to be Jacques Tati's masterpiece, this film was also his most widely distributed and widely seen film, due in large part to its having won the Academy Award as Best Foreign Film.
A replica of the "Villa Arpel", which was designed by Jacques Lagrange, can be seen at the Cent Quatre cultural center in Paris.
The project took nine months to shoot and an entire year to edit.