I’m interested to know when they shifted towards its gothic period so to speak where movies became more pessimistic.
All movies of the early times weren’t necessarily "light" or "happy". Although, they were more common. For example, the original "Phantom of the Opera" in 1925 had quite a dark plot to it, and was seen as "dark" back in its time. In today’s world, in comparison, it’s not dark at all. The general film started to evolve into darker plots in the dawn of the "Film Noir" age, usually considered 1943 – 1958, sometimes later. Film noir, was the term used to describe a film that had a very dark dramatic plot, emotional acting, and very dark style of filming, including darker exposure of the physical film. Films with depressing, mysterious, or "dark" plots were no longer considered taboo after film noir, and thus came films like "The Godfather" later on. In movie history, the darkest films were mostly made in the timeframe of film noir, but is starting to rise again in modern films, usually by imitating film noir films in un-original fashion, such as post-punk noir.
