Boys Keep Swinging

For Pierre & Gilles, known affectionately as P&G, growing up means growing old, and if they can't stop this process in life, they can at least do so in their art by freezing moments of robust youth and beauty. This beguiling pair is beloved more by camp followers than critics for their gaudy painted photographs -- large overripe images of luminaries like Catherine Deneuve, Madonna, and Nina Hagen, and perhaps closer to home, a virtual army of half-naked hustlers, sailors, and farmboys who get the kind of kitsch makeover, complete with garlands and glitter, usually reserved for saints. Mike Aho's hour-long documentary Pierre & Gilles: Love Stories doesn't try to get inside P&G's heads -- they're apparently as placid as their paintings -- but it's an amusing, diverting dip into the insular art, endless parties, and beautiful, brainless narcissists of both sexes who populate their world. Love Stories is preceded by Ron Peck's short comedy What Can I Do With a Male Nude?. The screening begins at 8 p.m. in the Screening Room at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission (at Third Street), S.F. Admission is $6-7; call 978-ARTS.

-- Gary Morris