When the world was more than enough

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, things were pretty different in my life. It was the Christmas of 1999, and as far as I can remember everyone seemed happy. I didn't have a big James Bond collection, not my knowledge of the character and my dominion of the English language was so big, but I remember that I was totally excited as my dad was taking me to watch The World Is Not Enough, which premiered in my native Buenos Aires on the penultimate week of December 1999.

Back then, there was no Twitter. Nobody questioned if the next Bond should be black or female. We simply didn't care about how politically correct or incorrect should 007 be. We knew the gunbarrel was to be at the beginning, that he would beat the bad guys and end up in bed with a girl. I expected that and I was eager to see that. On the downside, the Internet wasn't as massive as it is today. Only a few schoolmates of mine had a computer and the dial-up connection costed a king's ransom, so it wasn't like you could spend hours and hours watching Bond stuff, but I positively remember the days where I went to a cyber-station to watch the latest pics and posters of the film. That was what I cared about back then, pics and posters, and the trailers. I didn't take enough time to read what the film was about, but I still remember how my eyes nearly popped out of my sockets when I saw that "flame girl" poster on a nearby theatre.

Finally, on December 25, 1999, the day came. Dad came to pick me up and we headed to the Paseo Alcorta shopping mall in the Palermo town, where I lived. My mom had recommended us to watch the movie there, in those cinemas, and there was where I had seen the "flame girl" poster I saw, so I also wanted to go there. Surprisingly –or not so surprisingly, to be honest– the parking lot was deserted. No sign of life there, except for two security guards at the door, who told my dad and me that the shopping was closed.

Cine America, is that you?

We took a bus and we ended up in the downtown of Buenos Aires. There was a cinema there, Cine America, and it was open. We had something to eat and by 6 pm I was seated next to my dad to watch the nineteenth James Bond film. What can I remember? The sound was too loud. I remember having covered my ears during most of the projection because I wasn't used to extremely loud sounds, and for a reason, the volume was particularly up here. Other than that, I was surprised to see Valentin Zukovsky dying. Not so much about Elektra's betrayal. I knew she was the villain because I got a trading card of the film weeks before the screening that gave away how she tortured Bond in the garotte chair. I didn't care so much about spoilers back then!

In the last minutes of the movie, Bond and the leading Bond girl aptly named Christmas toast with fireworks behind. Being a little kid, I can still remember how people laughed at the "It's getting redder" joke from the finale. But back to the film, I have to say there's something in The World Is Not Enough that makes me feel melancholic. It was as if an era came to an end. And, at least in my life, it was. From 2000 on, we had to move from that home where I spent the golden days of my childhood. Mom and dad lost their jobs. We then went for a couple of years to my grandmothers where my then incipient Bond collection had to be stored in boxes and it wasn't until 2002 (yes, with Bond's return as well) that things began to stabilize.

Flash forward to 2019, I wonder... how many things in these twenty years aren't the same anymore? How many things aren't around here anymore? The Cine America has been demolished and replaced by something else to the point I don't know if it was that building or the other whenever I walk through the Callao avenue. Pierce Brosnan is not James Bond anymore. Dad... dad has also left us three years ago and I know No Time To Die without him will feel strange next April. The country is not the same either, Christmas doesn't feel quite like Christmas... maybe it's just that I'm growing old?

Suddenly, you know you aren't a kid anymore and you feel you have grown up quite fast.

However, I have enough VHS, DVD and BluRay editions of The World Is Not Enough expecting to be rewatched at anytime. And every time I do it, I feel a bit moved. Sometimes even tear-eyed. Because that unavoidable feeling tends to sink in. The unavoidable remembrance of those old, far and distant days when, to me, the world was more than enough...