<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $22 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $182 million </Td> </Tr> <P> The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 American romantic drama film based on the best - selling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller . It was produced by Amblin Entertainment and Malpaso Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment . The film was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with Kathleen Kennedy as co-producer and the screenplay was adapted by Richard LaGravenese . The film is about an Italian war bride, Francesca (Meryl Streep), who lives with her husband and two children on a farm in Iowa . In 1965, she meets a National Geographic photographer named Robert (Eastwood) and has a four - day extramarital affair with him that changes both their lives forever . The film earned $182 million worldwide and was well received by critics . Streep received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination in 1996 for her performance in the film . </P> <P> In the present day, adult siblings Michael and Carolyn arrive at the Iowa farmhouse of Francesca Johnson, their recently deceased, elderly mother, to see about the settlement of their mother's estate . As they go through the contents of her safe deposit box and the will, they are baffled to discover that their mother left very specific instructions that her body be cremated and her ashes thrown off the nearby Roseman Covered Bridge, which is not in accordance with the burial arrangements their parents had made: side - by - side plots in the local cemetery . Michael initially refuses to comply with the cremation, while Carolyn discovers a set of photos of her mother and a letter . She manages to convince Michael to set aside his initial reaction so they can read the documents she has discovered . Once alone, they go through a series of letters from a man named Robert Kincaid to their mother . The siblings find their way to a chest where their mother left a letter, a series of diaries, photographs, old cameras and other mementos . </P>

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