The photos are of Francesca taken at the Holliwell Covered Bridge and the letters are from a man named Robert Kincaid. Michael initially refuses, but while he and Carolyn look through the safe deposit box, they discover an envelope containing photographs, letters, and a key. They are shocked upon learning that Francesca requested to be cremated and her ashes scattered from Roseman Covered Bridge, rather than burial next to her late husband, Richard.
In the present, adult siblings Michael and Carolyn Johnson arrive at their recently deceased mother, Francesca's Iowa farmhouse to settle her estate.
Streep was nominated in 1996 for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. The film earned $182 million worldwide and was well-received by critics. With Francesca's family away for a short trip, the couple have an intense, four-day love affair. That year she meets National Geographic photojournalist, Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), who comes to Madison County to photograph its historic covered bridges. The film is set in 1965, featuring Italian war bride, Francesca Johnson ( Meryl Streep), who lives with her husband and two children on their Iowa farm. It was produced by Amblin Entertainment and Malpaso Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. The screenplay was adapted by Richard LaGravenese.
It was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in it with Meryl Streep. Adapted from the novel by Robert James Waller, this is the story of a special love that happens just once in a lifetime - if you're lucky.The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 American romantic drama film based on the 1992 bestselling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller. After learning that Robert Kincaid's cremated remains were scattered off Roseman Bridge and that their mother requested that she too be cremated and her ashes to be scattered off Roseman Bridge, the children must decide whether to honor their mother's final wishes or bury her alongside their father as the family had planned. The message they take from the diaries is to what you what you have to do to be happy in life. The journals are found by her children after the lawyer was going over Francesca's will and all the contents which produces a key to her hope chest in the bedroom which contained some of hers and Robert's things. Through the pain of separation from her secret love and the stark isolation she feels as the details of her life consume her, she writes her thoughts of the four-day love affair which took up three journals. She is reluctant seeing that he's a complete stranger and then she agrees to show him to the bridges and gradually she talks about her life from being a war-bride from Italy which sets the pace for this bittersweet and all-too-brief romance of her life. Francesca later learns that he was in Iowa on assignment from National Geographic magazine. While her husband and children are away at the Illinois state fair in the summer of 1965, Robert Kincaid happens turn into the Johnson farm and asks Francesca for directions to Roseman Bridge. The path of Francesca Johnson's future seems destined when an unexpected fork in the road causes her to question everything she had come to expect from life.