Suspender-Snapping and the Trivial Comfort of Justice in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Red

In Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Red, Valentine becomes acquainted with a retired judge because she has run over his dog. When she discovers that he spies on his neighbors' telephone conversations, she is horrified. By way of explanation, he snaps his suspenders. “Vous voulez essayer?” he asks. “Ça fait un bruit très agréable.” She refuses, but near the close of the film, another character, Auguste, who recently passed his examination to become a judge, snaps his suspenders in the same way when he leaves his apartment to find out if his girlfriend is cheating on him.
Judgment is a central theme in this film, but rather than focusing on the damage to the judged, Kieslowski shows the impact of judgment on the judge. The old, unnamed judge and the young judge Auguste share, at different times, the experience of betrayal by a lover. Both sit in judgment on those who have wronged them, but this judgment does not ease the grief of either. Their common gesture of suspender-snapping represents this, in part because it is such a trivial gesture. Snapping suspenders is a severe gesture, and the sound the elderly judge enjoys is reminiscent of a whip cracking down. This gesture therefore gives the illusion of power to mede out punishment, but it does not actually comfort either of the two judges. The snapping of a suspender is pathetically trivial in the face of their grief. Similarly, all the judgment these two men attempt to pass on their ex-lovers, and, in the case of the elder judge, on the human race in general, fails to grant them any comfort or satisfaction, even whn they can be convinced of the correctness of their position. Furthermore, the elder judge’s conviction in his own righteousness fades as the movie progresses. Judgment becomes as trivial and uncomforting as the snapping of a suspender.