“The particular magic of Les Trois Couronnes du matelot (and doubtless the reason for its rapturous reception by French critics) springs from the way it combines high romantic supernatural appeal with a quirky, questioning modernism that is Ruiz's distinctive voice. The foggy monochrome opening irresistably recalls Carné: a student is surprised after committing a brutal murder and persuaded to spend the night listening to a drunken sailor's tale. The latter's adventures in brothels and Latin American ports, sailing on what turns out to be a ship of ghosts, take place in a vividly surreal limbo world that Ruiz and his cinematographer have somehow conjured out of slender TV movie resources. Welles' Lady from Shanghai and Immortal Story may have been departure points but, with its eerie special effects and troubled eroticism, this is as much an eternal mariner's rime of the future.” Ian Christie, London Film Festival, 1983