Five Main Features for the New Romance According to Steve Neale

Steve Neale identifies five main features for the New Romance:

1.  Asserting values of old-fashioned heterosexual romance.

•  Reclaiming conventions of classical Romantic Comedy.

2.  Nervousness relabeled as “eccentricity.”

•  Hallmarks of either or both member of the couple.

•  Neurosis/Nervousness/Eccentricity cured, marginalized, and sometimes adopted by the right partner.

3.  Return to a linear narrative.

•  Suggests events in courtship actually leading somewhere.

•  Counters threat of female independence.

4.  Use of romantic music.

•  Evocation and endorsement of   signs and values of “old-fashioned romance.”

•  Catalogue of “oldies” performed by original crooners or re-recorded by contemporary artists.

•  Seeks to banish the ‘nervousness’ and attempts to  reclaim the conventions of the Classic Romantic Comedy

•  Films return to a linear narrative to suggest that events in the courtship are actually leading somewhere

•  Persistent evocation and endorsement of the signs and values of the ‘old-fashioned’ romance

•  ‘Nervousness’ is still prevalent, however, has now been relabeled as “eccentric” or “whimsical”

•  One partner is ‘cured’ when they come in contact with the ‘liberating eccentricity’ of the other partner

•  The ‘wrong partner’ is the one who ultimately remains permanently neurotically eccentric
•  The heroine/female is somewhat contained; positioning of the heroine returning to a traditional role

5. Films become self-conscious

•  evoking heterosexual intimacy

•  endorsing its signs and values

•  full awareness of fantastical nature (wish-fulfillment).