This film is based on a short story written by Dennis Pahl. At the time of pre-production the story was still unpublished. After filming wrapped, The Feral Press, the primary imprint of Prehensile Pencil Publications, picked up the story and included film stills in their publication.
The color red is a motif throughout the film. The Guard's red tie eventually, and inexplicably, ends up as a belt around the waist of the Ticket Seller in the Room of Lost Love. The red tie becomes associated with the red umbrella in The Room of Lost Umbrellas, and the passion suggested in the love story. There is, one might say, a "tie-in" with the visitor's longing for a passion now lost. The film's protagonist, The Museum Visitor, is wearing a coral color faded red shirt and the red motif manifests in different objects: coffee cups, a red museum entrance door, and red walls along the cobblestone street.
Despite being an accomplished musician, this is Michael Ferrari's first original composition for film.
Jorge Luis Borges' collection of short stories and essays entitled "Labyrinths" is seen in the lobby scene being read by The Ticket Seller. When The Museum Visitor notices this, she simply says, "I borrowed it." This implies that she took it from The Room of Lost Books, a room visited later on in the film. Furthermore, one can also argue that she borrowed it from the inside story, where the same book shows up on the bed of X and P. Viewers have questioned whether The Ticket Seller borrowed the book from the room or from the writer's own imaginative writings, suggesting that what she reads in the folder she brings to her "reality."
The Museum Visitor is a fan of classical music, especially of composers whose names begin with a "sh" sound. Ironically, "shhh" is a sound that suggests a need for silence. His past is an emptiness, a silence he's trying to restore via his imagination. He longs to bring back the music of life he's somehow lost. Right after he loses his way to the music store, the song heard on the cobblestone street is a Shostakovich piano sonata, and right afterwards, on the staircase, a violin solo from Shostakovich's second string quartet. More "sh" composers used throughout the film include Chopin's preludes and a waltz by Schubert.