Something Important

"He told her.
"She stood long silent."
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT Chapter XVII, p. 238.

"Flandry told him.
"Enriques was still for a long moment."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Sixteen, p. 167.

A couple of times before, I have found very similar passages in different texts and quoted them side by side.

In Mirkheim, David Falkayn tells Sandra Tamarin that Benoni Strang is Bayard Story. In Ensign Flandry, Dominic Flandry tells Admiral Enriques that a rogue planet is on a collision course with the star, Saxo. In both cases:

this single new datum explains much that had previously puzzled the characters;

however, the author does not want the reader to know what the new datum is until later in the narrative;

hence, "He told her" and "Flandry told him."

What would be the best way to film such scenes while preventing the audience from gaining the crucial information too soon? For discussion of the Mirkheim example, see "How To Film Mirkheim?" here. In particular:

(iii) Sandra shows van Rijn's agent, David Falkayn, a tape of her recent conversation with Strang. We should not see the screen. Falkayn yells, asks whether Strang has a twin brother or a double, then explains. While he explains, the camera should pull back so that we do not hear what he is saying.

I go further and suggest that the camera should pull back through the window so that we see the New Keep, where the characters converse, from the outside, then further back so that we see more of the Hermetian city of Starfall. We know that something important is being imparted while we are being shown the Palomino River, Daybreak Bay, Olympic Avenue, Pilgrim Hill, the Old and New Keeps and Signal Station.

In Ensign Flandry, the camera pulling back through a window of Dragoika's house would show us armed Kursovikians filling Shiv Alley and spilling into the Street Where They Fought. We would see that something important was happening while Flandry continued to answer Enriques' questions.

See also Filming Poul Anderson.