Dialogues is a self-reflexive feature film directed by the American experimental filmmaker Owen Land — formerly known as George Landow (1941-2011). The author of a powerful, critically-acclaimed but also exhilarating work, Land was a pioneer of structuralist cinema, the forms of which he developed and criticized at the same time in significant works such as A Film of Their 1973 Spring Tour Commissioned by Christian World Liberation Front of Berkeley California (1974) and On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? (1977-79). As for Dialogues, one could consider it as a parody of Scorpio Rising, an analytical report of US popular music, a re-interpretation of Platon’s dialogues about reincarnation, or just a hilarious if polemical essay about the male/female polarity. Let’s say that Dialogues is a great contemporary literary text. That is why we decided to publish it as such.
Edited by Philippe Pirotte and Julia Strebelow of the Kunsthalle Bern, the producer of the film and the publication, and designed by Kaisa Lassinaro, the book thus delivers the integral, annotated script of what would unfortunately happen to be Land’s last film, released in 2009 and premiered in Bern. It is introduced with a critical essay by Chris Sharp and two interviews with Land.

(Cet ouvrage est entièrement consacré à Dialogues, dernier chef-d’oeuvre achevé par le cinéaste expérimental américain Owen Land — également connu sous le nom de George Landow. Auteur d’une oeuvre remarquable, aussi complexe qu’hilarante et grotesque, Land était l’un des pionniers du cinéma structurel dont il a développé et critiqué les formes dans des films comme A Film of Their 1973 Spring Tour Commissioned by Christian World Liberation Front of Berkeley California (1974), ou On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? (1977-79). Dialogues peut se lire, quant à lui, tout à la fois comme autobiographie fantasmée, relecture parodique du Scorpio Rising de Kenneth Anger, analyse illustrée des doctrines néoplatoniciennes ou comme une comédie de mauvais goût sur les rapports entre les sexes.
Édité par Philippe Pirotte et Julia Strebelow de la Kunsthalle Berne où s’est tenu en 2009 la première de Dialogues, ce livre en comporte le scénario complet, accompagné d’un appareil de notes et de photogrammes qui donne à saisir la structure du script et l’humour du film. Il contient également un essai du critique d’art Chris Sharp et deux courts entretiens avec Owen Land.)