The Adventures of Sylvia Couski1972

This film is a musical comedy, or maybe a fairy tale... Everything reduced to the surface as in the paintings of the Primitive School, as in dreams, as in musical comedies... A story as a pretext for a series of portraits, and a series of portraits as a pretext for an invented story in an invented city (Paris), a city of transvestites trying to relive the Belle Epoque of festivities and art...

"I saw Arrieta's film last June, in Toulon. It was made in Paris so I thought it was French and I was surprised to see a French film recording the world of the transvestite because this subject has been a tabu in modern (new) French cinema. Later I found out that Arrieta was Spanish, from Madrid, and that Paris was only one of his stations.
"French or Spanish – I found Arrieta's film compelling, informative, entertaining, and beautiful. As I said, its subject is the Paris transvestite scene and it's depicted with the flair of Jack Smith, the directness of Andy Warhol, and the special tenderness of Arrieta. I salute the Poet." – Jonas Mekas, February, 1975.