New DVDs for the art-house crowd

Art films released on DVD this week include these movies by Italian filmmakers.

"Allegro Non Troppo" (HVE, 1977, not rated, animated/live-action, color and b/w, $29.95). Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto is best known in this country for this art-house staple of the '80s, a feature-length spoof of Disney's "Fantasia." The animation sequences, elaborate, abstract color cartoons set to classical music, specifically take aim at Disney's classic, but the black-and-white live-action scenes lampoon Federico Fellini.

Some of this is also a bit risque — primarily animated male and female nudity, though it is neither realistic nor titillating.

Most of the live-action comedy falls flat, with mute Italian comic Maurizio Nichetti as a buffoon artist in conflict with the music conductor. But some of the animated sequences soar, in particular the take on evolution set to Ravel's "Bolero," and the lonely memories of a cat in a condemned building.

This disc also contains 10 of Bozzetto's short cartoons, most of which have been seen in various international-animation collections, and some are hysterical. My favorite is "Baeus," about a little blue bug who falls in love with a mistreated homemaker and uses a book of magic to try and make himself human.

Extras: full frame, in Italian with English subtitles, 10 short cartoons, TV documentary, etc.

"Blow-Up" (Warner, 1966, not rated (but with R-level nudity, language), $19.98). This mod '60s existential mystery is set in London and focuses on a self-absorbed model-photographer (David Hemmings), who casually snaps some pictures in a park of a woman (Vanessa Redgrave) and her lover. But he doesn't realize until he develops the film that he's also photographed a murder. Or has he?

Filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni doesn't take a straight-forward, conventional approach here, but instead goes for an abstract exploration of human nature, the swinging lifestyle of the time and reality vs. fantasy. The film is as impenetrable as it is intriguing. (There's also a great Herbie Hancock score and an appearance by the Yardbirds, with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.)

A fascinating and strange film. And the optional audio commentary, by a film historian, doesn't help much. It's filled with opinions that often seem off the mark, as when he praises the unique credits here as a breakthrough phenomenon — apparently never having seen "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), "Psycho" (1960) or any of the James Bond films (which began in 1962). His comments about some aspects of "Blow-Up" seem equally ill-advised, as he merely speculates or quotes others.