Actor Bertrand Goncalves produces skits inspired by French cinema clichés on Tiktok. A way to address a new, often younger, audience.
There’s Caflan, the police station analyst “who means well”, always wearing his flowered shirt and holding a snack in his hand. Then Max, who, overcome with love, catches up with Julie at the last minute, the love of his life who is about to board a plane. Or Cédric, the French teacher with unconventional methods who has just been transferred to a difficult high school.
The happy little troupe regularly takes part in thirty-second sketches on Tiktok. Each of these videos dissects the clichés of police series, comedies or romantic films. Except that all these characters are actually played by one and the same person: Bertrand Goncalves.
Drawing inspiration from his daily life as an actor
Since the end of March, the actor and director has been producing his short parodies that take up the codes of French cinema for his 37,000 subscribers on the platform. “Between the moment we contacted each other at the beginning of the week, and today, my number of subscribers on Tiktok has exceeded my Instagram account”, he proudly announces at the beginning of our interview. The Rouen native has been present on Meta’s social network since 2016.
“I originally started on TikTok so that people would stop criticizing me for being absent from the platform,” jokes the artist, who didn’t want to come across as a “slightly outdated thirty-something.” He armed himself with a notebook and his phone and began filming his mini-parodies in his apartment.
To find inspiration, he naturally draws on his daily life as an actor and director.
“I played and auditioned for police series,” recalls the man who played in Bernadette Or A bug. So, I took inspiration from the codes of these police series to make parodies of them.”
Unsurprisingly, success is there. Some of his videos have accumulated more than 400,000 views. The actor then diversified into romantic comedies and even art-house films. Here again, the content is a hit. His fake trailer for a French film has more than 2.4 million views. “The reactions have been very enthusiastic,” observes Bertrand Goncalves.
Just take a look at the comments section. “It made me want to see the movie even though it didn’t exist,” says one user. “It’s even better than the real trailers,” adds another. An opinion shared by the official Canal+ account on Tiktok. “Very strong boss, we want this movie here,” teases the channel.
Addressing a new audience
The actor didn’t wait for Tiktok to interact directly with his fans. But the platform offers an even different interaction. “In the film industry, sometimes a year goes by for a short film, or even five years for a movie, between the moment we have the idea and the theatrical release,” recalls Bertrand Goncalves.
“With Tiktok, I can film and share what I write directly with the general public,” he confirms. A valuable promotional tool, then. The actor’s Tiktok account ensures him a place in the media news while offering him the opportunity to address a new, younger audience.
Indeed, Tiktok’s recommendation algorithm, which suggests content in users’ news feeds, plays a leading role in content discovery. “A single video that explodes can encourage users to watch other content and discover my work,” he analyzes. As proof, his first video exceeded 500 views while the actor only had 7 subscribers. “Even my friends didn’t follow me,” Bertrand Goncalves says ironically.
However, the actor admits that the reactions of his peers worried him.
“At first, I wondered how my colleagues would perceive these parodies, if they would have the same self-mockery as me,” admits the French actor. “But my videos are not mockery or criticism. I simply have fun with the codes of the different genres of cinema,” he insists.
“Like on a film set”
To get the message across, the director is keen to “play with sincerity”. “The parody is mainly through dialogue and writing. When I play for Tiktok, I try to do it like on a film set.” For each video of a few seconds, he spends several hours working on his text, thinking about camera placements and spends up to 5 hours to make several dozen takes. All this, without leaving his apartment.
“It’s time-consuming,” admits the 30-year-old. But the potential benefits are well worth the time invested.
“When I see that my latest video has over a million views on TikTok, it’s crazy,” he exclaims. “It’s like a million people came into a cinema to watch my film.”
His content around police series is particularly appreciated by Internet users. “As in a fiction, they become attached to the characters and follow their adventures on several videos”, underlines the director.
And Bertrand Goncalves does not intend to stop there. The actor plans to multiply the videos around other clichés of French cinema. “And why not invite other actors in slightly longer formats”, he smiles.
