Fellini: I'm a Born Liar expertly judged and beautifully made document. Fellini's eloquent descriptions of his own development and working processes reveal extraordinary insight, not only into film-making, but into art and artists across all disciplinary boundaries". S. F. Said of "The Telegraph" (London) wrote: "For sheer entertainment value, "Fellini: I'm A Born Liar" is as good as any fiction. The lengthy, probing interview in which Fellini is sometimes contradictory, sometimes self-deceiving, is always entertaining. This is neatly played off against the recollections of collaborators, including Terence Stamp and Donald Sutherland, which are alternately affectionate and appalled." In France, it was acclaimed in major magazines
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar come up with was the national snack, maple syrup served on snow. "Fellini looked at me in stupefaction. 'Thees is not possible,' he said. 'It is food for mooses and beears.'" Calvino rescued Pettigrew by repeating a thematic connection the latter had made between Elias Canetti's book "Crowds and Power" and Fellini's political parable, "Prova d'orchestra" (1979). Fellini was duly surprised, admitting to Pettigrew that Canetti's work had indeed been a conscious influence. Pettigrew then turned the conversation to film. They were dining in Fellini's private office beside the soundstages at Cinecittà where he was finishing "And the Ship Sails