Eye candy with no narrative or character development

Rating: 4/10 (16 February 2019)

Obviously taking its inspiration from Fellini, the story of two lovers in cold war Poland and "western" France is one that totally did not grip me. Sure, the photography is great & the acting is OK (though not great) but that's about it. Otherwise this is a story with no surprising twists, no real plot, no secondary themes. It's empty.
The scenario is boring and revolves around one single thing: the love of the two protagonists. That's it. Nothing else. There's very little about the political aspects of those times (just some details regarding censorship and the Polish communist government trying to create propaganda) and furthermore some twists are completely unbelievable (after many years of separation she suddenly finds him in an obscure bar in Paris?). Also, the eternal love, that the movie is supposedly about, is not built up at all, but rather a given at a certain point in time. Also, folk music and dance roughly amount to 1/4th of this anyway short movie (80 or so minutes). The dialogues are cringeworthy at best. In short, there's not much to like here, in my opinion.
It's hard to get into the skin of the two protagonists and their love. As said, it's not built up, there's hardly any character development. The two stay the same for 20 odd years and that is basically all the movie offers. No secondary characters, no other twists, no other deeper meaning.
I am boggled by how this movie (and also Pawlikowski's other tragically bad but somehow critically acclaimed movie 'Ida') received so much positive press. For me there's nothing in this movie except eye candy. Perhaps all the critics have suddenly fallen in love with Pawlikowski and the type of movies that have no message, no meaning and just superficial splendor. Maybe it's the black and white thing? I don't get it.
Seriously flawed scenario with very little surprising elements. In short, simply a boring movie with unbelievable and uninteresting characters and theme. It might be even worse than 'Ida'. How this could have been nominated for an Oscar is completely beyond me.