AFI Fest: Paul Thomas Anderson Talks ‘Inherent Vice’ Influence ‘Mondo Hollywood’ With Director Robert Carl Cohen

Few other filmmakers know Los Angeles or see Los Angeles like Paul Thomas Anderson, a lifelong native who’s made his career on the sprawling cast of characters, themes, and environments that make up the Southern California city. It makes sense then that when Anderson announced plans to tackle an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s ‘70s-set novel “Inherent Vice” (review), he was hesitant to watch a copy of "Mondo Hollywood," a 1967 documentary given to him by Mark Flanagan, owner of the L.A. music and comedy club Largo. “There's a lot of coverage on this period, and there's a lot that I've seen,” the “Magnolia” director explained Saturday afternoon at an AFI Fest screening of the documentary. “Initially I was skeptical and then I put this on and thought immediately, ‘I've never seen anything like this.’ ” A freewheeling, surreal, and fascinating piece told in vignettes, “Mondo Hollywood” places us right in the center of mid-'60s LA and it lets the citizens give a tour....