The Bridges of Madison County is a novel written by Robert James Waller and published in 1992. The novel is one of the best-selling books of the 20th century.

In 1965, Francesca Johnson is an Italian-American housewife who lives in Iowa. Her husband and her children leave their home for a week. A National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid, arrives to photograph the covered bridges in the area. He is lost and met Francesca in her house. Slowly, a love affair takes place between the two characters, a dangerous liaison. ‘Passion’ is the key word of this story but this love affair seems to be impossible.

With an international success, an adaptation of this novel was directed by Clint Eastwood in 1995 where we find him and the marvellous Meryl Streep. This film is one of my great favourites for many reasons : the story is purely wonderful but very sad too. In my opinion, Meryl Streep is the best actress of the world because she’s so charming and captivating in this film, but in Out of Africa directed by Sydney Pollack in 1985 or in August: Osage County directed by John Wells in 2013 too (it’s just two examples because the list is very long!) . All the poetry of the film resides in the beautiful sets and in the wonderful photography. Both actors complement each other and they lead the audience from beginning to end. This is a very great film.