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
Watch for free
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.
Watch for free
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?
Watch for free
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
Watch for free
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'.
Watch for free
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.
Watch for free
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.
Watch for free
Lady Pilots Lady Pilots
Non-Fiction 1935 3 mins Silent Location: Devon
Talented women become mistresses of the skies.
Watch for free
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.
Watch for free
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?
Watch for free
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.
Watch for free
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.
Watch for free
Clothes to Please Clothes to Please
Current affairs 1963 1 mins Location: Devon
Responses to questions about dressing to please are of their day.
Watch for free
Laura Mulvey in Conversation Laura Mulvey in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 76 mins
Laura Mulvey in conversation, following her BFI Fellowship Award.
Watch for free
George Clooney in Conversation George Clooney in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 74 mins
George Clooney visited BFI Southbank to look back on his life and career.
Watch for free
Chloé Zhao Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Chloé Zhao Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 65 mins
The Oscar®- winning director of Nomadland discusses her unique approach to filmmaking and the inspiration behind the adaptation of Hamnet.
Watch for free
Edgar Wright on The Running Man Edgar Wright on The Running Man
Inside Film 2025 28 mins
The director talks to Mark Kermode about putting Stephen King's dystopian life-or-death gameshow thriller through its paces.
Watch for free
Richard Linklater Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Richard Linklater Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 69 mins
Richard Linklater discusses his remarkable and wide-ranging body of work, including Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague.
Watch for free
Daniel Day-Lewis Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Daniel Day-Lewis Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 73 mins
Daniel Day-Lewis, the ultimate actor’s actor discusses his career in conversation with Mark Kermode.