Editing continues

So last Tuesday I finished the assembly edit of the film. What I mean is I assembled footage according to my shooting script, or outline really, since I don't use a script. There was no regard for pacing or feel in the assembly edit.
At the finish of the assembly the film looked like this:
Segment 1 = 31 minutes
Segment 2 = 43 minutes
Segment 3 = 36 minutes
Total length = 110 minutes.
(Actually the film is now longer as I have adding more material in the blackouts. See below).
Now I have never thought that shortening a film is any virtue in and of itself. Milos Foreman told a great story about editing one of his films for a studio. He showed them a version at 115 minutes. Too long, make it shorter. He went away and cut 10 minutes out of it. Still too long. He got it down to 95 minutes. Still too long, shorter. Well he didn't know what to do. He couldn't see how he could make any shorter. He went back to the editing suite and thought and thought. He added three minutes to the film and presented it to the studio. Yes, that's better. You see, shorter is better?
So, I am not going about this edit thinking that the film must shorter, I am going about thinking it must simpler and clearer and that may mean making it shorter. At 110 minutes the film is too long.
This past Saturday I started going through the assembly and tried to cut with some sense of pace, and necessity. I have been most happy cutting dialogue from certain scenes, which seems less and less useful when you see all the bits put together. It is almost as if a I have this toy constructed in my hands. It is held together with all sort of bits and pieces and it works, but it would work better without some of those bits. How many bits and pieces can I get rid of? That is what this whole process is about.
Right now the cutting is relatively pain free. Cutting away extra bits has meant that scenes are smoother and make more sense. Other scenes just work better at a certain length. Some scenes were intended to feel a certain pace and cutting brings this out. Some of the dialogue scenes were deliberately extended so that I could decide in the edit parts I wanted to use.
But before long I know this easy bit will be over and some hard decisions will need to made. Is this scene necessary? Is it necessary to explain this or that? Is that character necessary?
Between last Tuesday and last Saturday I have been preoccupied with another problem, the blackouts. I think I have already posted on the subject (http://tidalbarrier.blogspot.com/2007/10/blackouts-and-7th-draft.html) previously. I had decided that I needed to find a relationship between the blackouts and images within the narrative. I would like to post separately on this subject, as I have a lot to talk about. For now suffice to say that I have been very much inspired by Phillipe Grandrieux and his new film, Un Lac, which was part of the London Film Festival (http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/lake). If you have not seen it please call the ICA and nag them to distribute the film.
My other influence has been Rothko, and the exhibit at the Tate Modern. More on all of this soon.