Isabelle Adjani originally turned down the part of Elle which Jean Becker then offered to Valérie Kaprisky, who accepted. Later, after reading the book by Sébastien Japrisot (on which the film is based), Adjani changed her mind and took on the role.
When director Jean Becker and author Sébastien Japrisot offered her the lead role in this movie, whose screenplay was written with her in mind, Isabelle Adjani declined. "She was very kind but refused saying, 'No, I don't feel like doing it'. In fact, she was physically out of shape, and she was afraid of the nude scenes in the movie," remembered Jean Becker at the microphone of Bruno Cras on Europe 1.
In Paris Match, Isabelle Adjani looked back on this moment of her career: "Each project was a battle. I almost missed out on 'L'été meurtrier', I was afraid my parents couldn't stand the nudity scenes. I said no at first. They hired another actress, and it was Bruno Nuytten, my partner at the time, who finally convinced me to go back, quite cheekily."
The film was originally almost three hours long, but the director was persuaded to trim 40 minutes before its release.
Isabelle Adjani's second collaboration with Alain Souchon; they also played a couple in 'All Fired Up' (1982) from French director Jean-Paul Rappeneau.