Artificial Sun

[Describing one of Antonioni's first documentaries, which was never completed: a shoot with schizophrenics in a mental hospital]. I wanted to do it with real schizophrenics, and the director of the hostpital agreed. he was a bit mad himselff--a very tall man who demonstrated reactions of mad people in pain by rolling about on the floor with the rest of them. But he provided me with some schizophrenics and I chatted with them, explaining how they were supposed to move in the first scene. They were amazingly docile and they did everything in the rehearsal as I asked them. Everything was fine--until we lit the klieg lights and they came under a glare that they'd never seen before. All hell broke loose. They threw themselves on the ground; they began to howl--it was ghastly. We were in a sea of them and I was absolutely petrified. I hadn't even the strenght to shout "Stop!" So we didn't shoot the documentary; but I've never forgotten that scene."