Ariel Besse was only 15 when she made this film and performed the nude scenes. It was her first role. Her parents sued the distributors for the poster, which shows her breasts, as it was exhibited on billboards around France without their permission. They lost the case.
Sophie Marceau turned down the role of Marion.
The film played in competition at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival and had an international release. It received some positive reviews in spite of its controversial subject.
Writer and director Bertrand Blier declared Beau Pere was intended as "an ode to the fair sex and to womanhood in its purest form." Like Blier's earlier film Going Places (1974), he based it on a novel he had written, also titled Beau-père.
Patrick Dewaere was an accomplished musician and played the piano himself in this movie.