The Bridges of Madison County is a romantic drama film based on the best-selling novel by Robert James Waller.
The film is set in the summer of 1965. It tells the story of Francesca (Meryl Streep), a lonely, passionate Italian housewife in Iowa. While her husband and children are away at the Illinois State Fair, she meets and falls in love with a photographer (Clint Eastwood) who has come to Madison County, Iowa to create a photographic essay for National Geographic on the covered bridges in the area. The four days they spend together are a turning point in her life and she writes of her experience in a diary which is discovered by her children after her death. Eastwood directed and Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1996. (She lost to Susan Sarandon in "Dead Man Walking.")
In this scene, early in the film, Robert and Francesca are just getting to know each other and the sexual attraction is palpable. The conversation quickly goes to the limitations of Francesca's marriage and life in Iowa until Robert puts his foot in his mouth and almost destroys the evening.
Robert: Do you want to leave your husband?
Francesca: No. [bristling] Of course not!
Robert: [immediately realizing his error] I'm sorry about that. I apologize.
Francesca: What made you ask such a question?
Robert: I thought that's what we were doing. Asking questions. It was stupid . . . I'm sorry. I apologize. [he admits defeat and gets up from the table] I guess I should be going.
Francesca [not wanting him to go]: Look, I'm sorry . . .
Robert: . . . No. I apologize. You must forgive me. It was a very indiscrete question. It was dumb.
Hoarding the Responsibility
What I love about this apology is that Robert 
refuses to be let off the hook. His remark was a mistake and hurtful. It created immediate tension. Francesca tries to defuse the tension by also apologizing, but Robert will have none of it.
Francesca didn't do anything wrong. He specifies what he is apologizing for and won't back off.
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