This week on The Collision, we talk about expectations both financial and cinematic as they relate to Cloud Atlas.  We examine possible reasons why the film failed at the box office, and how the movie challenges conventions of storytelling and style.  As always, we finish up with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“American Cinema on the Global Stage and Argo“), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

In case you hadn’t heard, we now have a new “Greatest Film of All Time.”  Every 10 years, BFI’s Sight & Sound magazine polls a number of film experts to come up with a definitive list of the greatest films of all time.  These experts include critics, academics, writers, and programmers, and this year 846 such people participated in the poll.  Citizen Kane has topped the list every time since 1962, but this year Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful Vertigo overtook Orson Wells’ opus to be named the new “Greatest Film of All Time.”

Sight & Sound also conducts a poll of filmmakers, and this year 358 directors (including the likes of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Edgar Wright) yielded a significantly different Top 10 list with Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 pic Tokyo Story taking the top spot. Though lists of this sort are by definition subjective, these Top 10s are worth perusing and act as a great guide for film fans looking to deepen their cinematic palate.  Hit the jump to take a look at both lists.

Criterion makes the best DVDs/Blu-rays on the market for art house films.  This quality comes with a premium that most are willing to pay, but some cannot afford.  Last month, Netflix added 35 Criterion movies to their “Watch Instantly” selection.  It’s a smart move by Criterion since their movies can reach a wider audience and drive up demand for physical copies of Criterion films because they still contain fantastic special features.  Netflix benefits because it will bring on more film-lovers who can’t afford to check out ever Criterion Collection movie, but still want to see these rare and essential films.

Today, 21 more Criterion Collection films debuted on Netflix’s Watch Instantly and there are some great ones.  I’ll list all 21 after the jump, but here are some of my personal favorites that are now available to Netflix subscribers who have at least an $8.99/mo plan: M, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Rules of the Game; and those I’m ashamed I haven’t seen yet: Richard III, Smiles of a Summer Night, Tokyo Drifter, Umberto D., and The Wages of Fear.  I have a busy weekend ahead of me.

Hit the jump for the full list of films.

Here is the first silent film to be included in my roundup of movies to see before you die, and if this one doesn’t leave you wrung out like a sponge that’s been soaked in emotional overload, then you may have already bought the farm anyway.  You have no doubt encountered some of the other, more sweeping versions of Joan of Arc’s battlefield exploits, and may well be disappointed to discover that this post will not be going over Luc Besson’s epic The Messenger starring the delightful Milla Jovovich.  Granted, seeing the star of the Resident Evil franchise in full body armor has its appeal, but the territory we shall be visiting here goes a little deeper.  Simply put, Carl Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc puts the human soul, naked, frightened and indestructible, onto 82 minutes of panchromatic film. More after the jump: