Influence of Cirq? Circ? Cirque? What movie?

I'm guessing that Haynes was referring to Douglas Sirk (www.imdb.com/name/nm0802862/), who directed a number of dramas, the most famous of which he made in the fifties. Haynes and Julianne Moore worked together again seven years after Safe to make Far From Heaven, which was very Sirk-like.