-David Hemmings claims in his autobiography that Richard Harris was kicked off the film after he punched Antonioni and that the scenes that were still to be completed were done with another actor who was photographed from behind. Hemmings was apparently told this when Harris warned him about Antonioni when Hemmings was working on Blow Up.
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-Michelangelo Antonioni's first film in color.
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-Ever the perfectionist, Michelangelo Antonioni had the natural landscape painted and smoke tinted yellow to "reinforce the sense of desolation, of death".
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-The audio commentary for the BFI DVD states that Richard Harris walked off the film after an argument with Michelangelo Antonioni who had told him to walk diagonally across a yard. Harris asked why, to which Antonioni answered, "You don't ask me why, you're an actor. You just do it." The film was behind schedule at this stage and Harris was due to start work soon on Major Dundee. This and his argument with Antonioni were probably what led him to walk off the film.
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-While making this film on location in Italy, Richard Harris experimented with LSD for the first time. He was caught climbing the Trevi fountain in Rome and then ended up locked in a hotel bathroom, smashing the mirrors to smithereens with his bare fists.
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-Richard Harris agreed to star in Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee in December 1963 whilst still in the middle of making this film. Harris walked off Michelangelo Antonioni's film as it went further behind schedule to ensure that he did not miss Major Dundee's start date of 5 February 1964. Harris said that Le désert rouge had to be completed without him and a double was used for his character in some of the long shots.