During the splashy premiere last month at the New York Film Festival for "Inherent Vice," director Paul Thomas Anderson discussed in detail many of the influences on his upcoming Thomas Pynchon adaptation. One film that didn’t get mentioned was the 1967 cult documentary "Mondo Hollywood," but at AFI Fest, which kicks off today, the filmmaker will talk about the movie in detail with the man who made it happen.
Organizers at AFI have announced that Anderson will join director Robert Carl Cohen for a screening and conversation about "Mondo Hollywood" this weekend. Cited in the announcement of the event as an influence on "Inherent Vice," the oddball 1967 movie documents the weirder, counterculture side of Los Angeles, profiling a range of personalities from skydivers to artists to fashion designers and more. It also chronicles the social and political climate of the time, while famous faces like Jayne Mansfield, Frank Zappa, Sonny and Cher, Alfred Hitchcock, Brigitte Bardot, Ronald Reagan and more show up briefly.
Greeted with some controversy at the time (it was banned in France), the film was originally released in an 88-minute theatrical version but later restored to a two-hour director’s cut. "Mondo Hollywood" will screen with Paul Thomas Anderson on Saturday, November 8th but if you can’t make it, you can watch the full film below.