The Bridges of Madison County, based on the bestselling novel by Robert James Waller, was one of the most soulful films of 1995. Clint Eastwood plays Robert Kincaid, a divorced and well-travelled photojournalist who comes to a small Iowa town to shoot covered bridges for "National Geographic" magazine. Asking for directions, he meets Francesca (Meryl Streep, in the juiciest performance of her illustrious career), whose husband and two children are away at the state fair for four days.
The photographer and the Italian housewife are immediately attracted to each other. A relationship simmers in her kitchen where they swap stories, prepare food, eat, drink, smoke, and dance. The deeply romantic screenplay by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King) probes the poetics of desire and yearning which draw these two together as soulmates. Eastwood, as the film's director, slowly unfolds a wide range of moods, fantasies, emotions, and behaviors.
After Francesca's death 22 years later, her two children learn about the affair through her journals and then perform a ritual to honor the souls of their mother and her lover. You will be deeply moved by The Bridges of Madison County.