Have you seen Wajda's rather right-wing adaptation of Przbyszewska's left-wing play? Your hat comment reminded me of this essay about it by Robert Darnton http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:Xpamx6RNTr4J:digitalhistory.concordia.ca/courses/hist306f07/files/darnton.pdf+new+york+darnton+double-entendre&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=safari (though I think the hat burning is relevant, if true, for what it reveals about Saint-Just of the supposedly unrufflable cool - and the astonishing risk he seems to have been prepared to take, in initially planning to read the accusation with Danton present and not-yet-arrested!)