Luchino Visconti dreamed for his whole life to make a movie based on 'In search of lost time' by Marcel Proust.
The film was shot at Villa Miremont, on the outskirts of Rome, a meeting place for the Dolce Vita in the 1960s. Fellini, Mastroianni, Alain Delon, Callas lived there (and where Luchino Visconti auditioned Sophia Loren for a film never made on the life of the nun of Monza based on Alessandro Manzoni's 'The Betrothed').