Erika Frankel’s highly anticipated documentary King Georges follows quixotic old school French chef Georges Perrier for three years as his world – the 40+ year old Le Bec-Fin restaurant in Philadelphia – starts to crumble around him as tastes change and his aging customer base begins to fade away. The theatrical release was just a few days ago, but it’s showing only in Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles. One can readily watch it online on iTunes or other on-demand services, but we’d prefer to see it with popcorn on the big screen, so if anyone knows of it coming to a YVR theatre, please let us know! The trailer above has us fascinated. Eater gave it a great review this morning. Here’s an excerpt:

Like King Lear or The Wrestler, this is a tale of the tail-end; of how a king grapples with his kingdom crumbling; to what higher ground he rushes, seeking stability; to what fictions he clings like sheets to maintain his modesty and sense of power. It’s a devastating thing to watch, pathetic but beautiful too. Sunsets are always the most bewitching hour of the day.

Le Bec-Fin was, as we’re told in the film by the holy trinity of haute cuisine talking heads —?? Thomas Keller, Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud, in separate wistful interviews – one of the last classic French restaurants in the country. According to Perrier, who has the same fierce and slightly shocked-seeming expression as a bald eagle, it was the only real French restaurant for many years before it closed in 2012. The tablecloths were white; the service formal; the stemware legion. The opulence was itself opulent. Every other phrase on the menu was “black truffle” or “foie gras.” There was so much butter and cream in Perrier’s cuisine he must have kept the udders of entire herds of heifers sore.

Frankel began filming in 2011 which, unbeknownst to anyone, was Stage IV in the life of the restaurant. I know not what film she was thinking about making, but the knowledge – despite the proclamations by Perrier that the public will return to the classics – that Le Bec-Fin’s end was imminent imbues the 79 minutes of the film with an electric dramatic irony.