Le Cirque bio pic a smart study in family
By Julie Brown-Micko

What could be more central to the table than family? Wouldn’t it stand to reason then, that a family-owned restaurant would have advantages in a business based on feeding people? Advantages, yes, but also challenges as Andrew Rossi explores in his fascinating documentary about Sirio Maccioni, patriarch and ringmaster of the legendary Le Cirque in New York.

“I’ve been working in restaurants all my life,” sighs Sirio, “But I hate this business.” You could take this statement at face value, but there is something in the old man’s eyes that belies his dolorous claim. Sure, his legs ache and his head pounds. He handles the reservation book like some men scan the racing page or the stock market returns. But when he moves from table to table, greeting guests, exuding charm and a friendly competence, he beams. Sirio claims he continues to work for his three sons, who were stupid enough to follow him into the business. It’s true. But he freely admits that despite his 74 years “retire is not in my vocabulary” and a part of him is fully alive in the elegant surroundings of Le Cirque. The film gains its momentum from the unpacking of Sirio’s ambiguous comments.

The film moves in fairly linear fashion, sketching the beginnings of the famous four-star Le Cirque, feeding ground of the rich and stylish, but really begins as Sirio closes down the restaurant at the end of 2004. The family plans to reopen in a new building with a fresh menu, new outlook and leadership from his sons. The real meat and glory of the story is how Sirio fights (lovingly, most of the time) with his three sons. Mario, the eldest, is a typical overachiever who runs an outpost of Le Cirque in Las Vegas, with plans to expand even further. Middle son Marco claims he always knew he would be nothing more than a glorified waiter like his father and has nothing to prove (clearly Marco has inherited his father’s way of making statements that are both true and false). Youngest son Mauro struggles to be taken seriously, clashing constantly with his father and admitting that he has to shout to be heard in his family. Not least among these personality titans is Sirio’s wife, Egidiana, who strives to keep family tensions from boiling over with a firm, practiced hand.

If this feisty family weren’t enough, other luminaries make cameo appearances including Henry Kissinger, Donald Trump, Woody Allen, Rudolph Giuliani, Billy Joel and the assorted glamorous, vulgar and simply unusual. Viewers will find themselves rooting for Sirio and the restaurant he created, both of which represent a sophisticated way of life that teeters on the edge of extinction in a new, fast-paced, but slightly washed-out world.

With a wry smile, Sirio says a restaurateur is nothing but a “presumptuous waiter.” In the same way, one could say Table in Heaven is just a restaurant biography. But that wouldn’t quite be the truth. Sirio, and this fine documentary, are so much more.