"I spent a lifetime looking for a diamond in a mountain of glass."

December 20, 2009 12:03 PM

A few years ago I saw a foreign film. I have forgotten the title, but it ended with a line like "I spent a lifetime looking for a diamond in a mountain of glass." Anyone remember the name of it?

I am not certain but I believe it may have been World War II based, perhaps regarding a Jewish relationship. Thanks

posted by Mickelstiff to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Was the film released a few years ago...or was that just when you saw it? There's a WWII movie from 1949 called The Glass Mountain.
posted by pilibeen at 12:46 PM on December 20, 2009

I've found an unsourced quote in this guestbook which sounds similar: Adam Cassel, "And now, like so many men who have taken more than they have given, I stand on a mountain of glass looking for the diamonds I threw away."

I've been unable to track that down to any particular movie or book....

SPOILER: to everyone else: SPOILER:
And a stab in the dark: was the movie the rather Dickensian Dutch film Karakter? That sounds very much like the conclusion the character reached at the end of the movie.
posted by johnofjack at 12:55 PM on December 20, 2009

Ah ... nevermind: your quote sounds triumphant and both of the ones I mention above are defeated and full of regret. As you were.
posted by johnofjack at 1:24 PM on December 20, 2009

Foreign as in "not in English"? Do you remember the language?
posted by whiskeyspider at 1:29 PM on December 20, 2009

Response by poster: It was not an older film. I'm sure it was fairly recent.
posted by Mickelstiff at 1:31 PM on December 20, 2009

Response by poster: I think it was in German, but not sure.
posted by Mickelstiff at 3:52 PM on December 20, 2009