This might well seem a bit out of date, but today I was delighted to find a DVD of Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny & Alexander" - the full, 5-hour, 2-disc, Artificial Eye deal - in our local HMV sale for 7 quid. And this put me in mind of a singularly badtempered and inaccurate attack on the said film written by Alex Cox, in a "Guardian" column last year.

In fact, it was nearly 2 years ago (see my Guardian clippings at http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1679921,00.html), which probably goes to show how sensitive I am to a grudge even at second or third hand. But it's worth noting, I think, that Cox - whose first major feature, "Repo Man," was both wonderfully imaginative and funny - has not managed to sustain either his inspiration or wit in anything he's done since. In fact, for all his punk credentials, his take on the 1978 Sex Pistols debacle, "Sid & Nancy", is a strong candidate for the worst film ever made.

Alex, I'm an even bigger artistic failure than you, mate. I love "Repo Man", supported the Sandinistas, and am grateful you gave the great Joe Strummer his break in the movies. But "Fanny og Alexander" (that's Swedish, that is) is a great film, by a director whose Doc Martens I would suggest that you are barely qualified to polish. To seek to discredit it for its theatrical structure, or the upper-middle-class milieu it portrays is equivalent to a member of The Lurkers having a go at Beethoven about the price of violins.

And I liked The Lurkers.