Oliver Kern
The Glass Key
The Berlin Film Festival and the Making of Glamour
The glass key is the entrance card to glamour and glory, to a magical world no one will ever find: the promise of never ending happiness, the fulfilment of all our wishes. But as the key is made of glass, a fragile thing, as also Dashiell Hammett knew, most of us have to content themselves with a temporary bit of it: the magical world of fiction.
Film is the best of all perfect worlds, and a film festival is the place where fiction and reality seem to meet. But fiction goes on when the film is over, the film stars posing on the red carpet can not be parted from the sum of their roles in fiction and real life, their pictures blending with all the other pictures we already know.
The stars go on playing their roles, and their pictures are interpreted by the press, their fans, the public, serving as a pattern to the real world for its myths and parables. There will always be a need of new fiction for the hunger of those who can never hope to possess the key of glass.
Michaela Heissenberger, from the introduction to the book Der gläserne Schlüssel
„The Glass Key“ was made within several editions of the Berlin International Film Festival. All pictures were taken on the occasion of official photo calls and accredited press events.
