King Georges (Erica Frankel, 2015): USA

Reviewed by Markus Linecker. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2016.

As a big admire of culinary films I was very excited to see King Georges, a documentary about the French chef Georges Perrier and his famous Philadelphia French restaurant Le Bec-Fin. The restaurant has been owned by Perrier for 40 years, and it is in danger of being closed. The film deals with the French chef’s crusade to keep the eatery on the map; being the last of its kind in Philadelphia, it has a special place in fine dining world.

The film shows Perrier’s journey coming from Paris and becoming one of the most renowning chefs in America, but it also it shows the fiery attitude he has in his kitchen. The master chef yells, screams and calls his line cooks  and sou chefs insulting names, and they remain in awe of him. This is demonstrated as one of his cooks gives him a beautiful handmade birthday card.’

Nonetheless, Perrier’s business falters and he tries to find new ways to attract the current fine dining crowd. He partners up with the talented young chef Nicholas Elmi in order to save the Le Bec-Fin, which brings another challenge for both.

The film is not so much about food but more about life, aging, and not feeling wanted anymore. Perrier in his late sixties consumes his life with work. He sacrifices his marriage and family life in order to be successful. Director Erika Frankel indirectly asks the question, is it really worth it to sacrifice everything for success, which is temporary anyways? The film  beautifully demonstrates the struggle of a man who tries to keep up with the fast-changing world but in the end cannot keep up with it and falls back to his old ways. For example his partner Elmi tries to create a more contemporary environment, but Perri is so set in his status quo that Elmi has no chance to implement any big changes. The beauty is that Elmi repects Perrier so much that there is really no bad feeling between the two men.

This film is a wonderful character study of a very successful man who has everything reached he wanted but also sacrificed much, leaving him living alone with his dog. The only family he has in his restaurant; what will happen if he loses this one too?