The title of the book written by the character Amadeu "Um Ourives das Palavras" is Portuguese for "A Goldsmith of Words."
There are some language issues in the movie that one could take as goofs. But in fact, the movie takes English as a convention. The option to maintain Portuguese where logical would have made it a Portuguese-spoken movie through the entire flashback, and even some present scenes. So, all of the characters speak English, even if they should speak Portuguese or German. The reference to their actual language is made through their accents. That's why most of the actors playing Portuguese, even Brits, speak English with an effort to have the typical Portuguese accent.
Vanessa Redgrave was originally cast for the role of Adriana de Prado, however Charlotte Rampling replaced her.
The scene when Adriana (Charlotte Rampling) first meets Raimund (Jeremy Irons) in her house has a lot of similarities with the scene in Angel Heart (1987) where Charlotte Rampling's character Margaret Krusemark receives Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) in her house. In both scenes, it's the first (and rather uncomfortable meeting) between the characters. In both scenes, Rampling offers tea and makes some comments about the choice of tea. In both scenes, a maid is asked to bring the tea and an old photograph of the father of Ramplings character is discussed and becomes important to the scene.
Lena Olin (older Estefánia), Bruno Ganz (older Jorge O'Kelly), and Burghart Klaußner (Judge Prado) appeared in The Reader (2008), another movie about the remembrance of past events.