Paul Bowles, author - and thinly disguised subject - of the autobiographical novel on which the film is based, said, "It should never have been filmed. The ending is idiotic and the rest is pretty bad." This quote comes from a rare interview that was part of the film Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (1998).
Most of the settings named in the film are situated in present day Algeria in Africa though the picture was actually filmed in such places as Erfoud, Niger, Tangier, Morocco, Ouarzazate, and Tamnougalt.
British actress Jill Bennett, former wife of British playwright and actor John Osborne, committed suicide shortly after filming ended.
According to casting director Juliet Taylor, the original three leads in this movie would have been William Hurt, Melanie Griffith and Dennis Quaid, but for budgetary constraints were replaced with John Malkovich, Debra Winger and Campbell Scott respectively.
Paul Bowles: Uncredited, the film's source novelist as a man at a café. Show-business trade-paper 'Variety' said of this: "In a marvelous directorial conceit [by Bernardo Bertolucci], Bowles himself, 80 years old, watches his characters from a seat in a Tangiers café". According to Bowles official website, Bowles makes "appearances" in this movie. Bowles is also credited in the film's billing heard in the movie as the picture's narrator.
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