MONDO HOLLYWOOD Cinema's Legacy

This underground cult classic documentary captures Hollywood at its most psychedelic, from 1965 to 1967. But this isn’t a la-la-land we’re used to seeing. Instead, it goes beneath the usual glitz and glamor and heads for the fringe, following everyone from would-be actors and models to politicians and even skydivers. The film’s opening scene, which documents the original hippie-vegan Gypsy Boots exercising “Watusi-style” with stripper Jennie Lee under the HOLLYWOOD sign, perfectly nails the film’s focus of, as Variety wrote in its 1967 review, “the Hollywood the public doesn’t know.” But plenty of Hollywood we do know also get their closeups: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Alfred Hitchcock, Sonny and Cher, Brigitte Bardot and even Bobby Beausoleil of the Manson Family make appearances. Paul Thomas Anderson has listed this film as a chief inspiration and influence on his latest film, INHERENT VICE, an AFI FEST Gala presentation.