The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Psyche's Wedding
Bright young things thereto plight troth in a society wedding.
In partnership with:
Overview
This society wedding shows the veiled bride accompanied by her father suited in a morning suit of top hat, tails and booted in spats. Spats came from the word spatterdashes or spatter guards and sought to protect shoes from mud or rain. This fashion changed in the second half of the 1920s when King George V stopped wearing them.
The bride is offered a bouquet of wheat sheaves from the summer harvest representing fertility. Some excellent fashion is on show in this film with fur trim draping over shoulders in the shape of a fox but mink, possum, raccoon, seal, fox, sable, and beaver were all popular with the upper classes. This is a home movie shot on 16mm film at a time when amateur filmmaking is in its infancy and becoming popular with upper class enthusiasts. The Bright Young Things included artists and authors from aristocratic or moneyed backgrounds typified by F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby (1925) and became infamous as a decadent party-going set influenced by jazz, drink, drugs and sex.
Related
The Green-Maughan Wedding The Green-Maughan Wedding
Amateur film 1959 8 mins Silent Location: Jarrow
A glimpse of happiness in the 1950s at a Jarrow wedding beside the ruins of a Benedictine monastery.
The Best Man The Best Man
Comedy 1986 83 mins Location: Derry / Londonderry
The bar flies prepare for the big day with betting, boozing and banter. But will best man Billy break more than his ma’s heart before the wedding?
Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten
1947 1 mins Silent
Royal nuptials at Westminster Abbey, attended by the great and good including King George VI and Winston Churchill
The Royal Wedding The Royal Wedding
Non-Fiction 1923 5 mins Silent
The wedding of Queen Elizabeth II's future parents, as later incarnated by Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter in 'The King's Speech'.
Princess Mary Wedded to Viscount Lascelles at Westminster Abbey Princess Mary Wedded to Viscount Lascelles at Westminster Abbey
Non-Fiction 1922 8 mins Silent
Newsreel of the lavish royal marriage, which was probably the biggest British newsreel story of the decade.
Princess Mary's Thought Princess Mary's Thought
Non-Fiction 1922 1 mins Silent
The sartorial build up to the lavish nuptials of Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles in 1922.
Lady Pilots Lady Pilots
Non-Fiction 1935 3 mins Silent Location: Devon
Talented women become mistresses of the skies.
Jubilee Jubilee
Current affairs 1977 13 mins Location: Bath
A special report looks into the preparations for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and her subsequent tour of the South West.
Daz with the Blue Whitener Daz with the Blue Whitener
Advert 1967 2 mins Location: Devon
Mrs Cross takes the Daz test but what will the outcome be?
One Per Cent of Us - One in a Hundred One Per Cent of Us - One in a Hundred
News 1986 52 mins Location: Plymouth
This documentary charts the progress and challenges of disabled people living in the community.
One Per Cent of Us - Children No More One Per Cent of Us - Children No More
News 1976 45 mins Location: Plymouth
The TV cameras return to Downham School to see what has changed for disabled children since 1966.
Clothes to Please Clothes to Please
Current affairs 1963 1 mins Location: Devon
Responses to questions about dressing to please are of their day.
Frederick Wiseman's High School - a discussion Frederick Wiseman's High School - a discussion
Short documentary 2026 22 mins
Filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman and curator Matthew Barrington discuss Frederick Wiseman’s High School with Sandra Hebron.
Hard, Cracked the Wind Hard, Cracked the Wind
Horror 2019 17 mins
A haunting with words is the lure between life and death for a young Cornish poet.
A Last Resort A Last Resort
Comedy 2022 17 mins
Rose is desperate to celebrate her 60th birthday in style, but her daughter Genevieve is struggling to ignore some recent tragic news about her mum.
The Walk The Walk
Drama 2023 12 mins
Adeel Akhtar portrays a man on a weekly trek to his nearest JobCentre, entering a state of purgatory through barriers put in place by the system.
Seagull Seagull
Horror 2022 6 mins
Seagull is a recovering drug addict who is about to have a very strange night on The English Riviera.
Octopus Octopus
2021 13 mins
Upon returning to her home town for a funeral, a young woman reconnects with the friends she left behind.