Scenes from a Mall
1991 film by Paul Mazursky

Scenes from a Mall is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Paul Mazursky, written by Mazursky and Roger L. Simon, and starring Bette Midler and Woody Allen. The title is a play on Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, and the film itself features similar themes of marital disintegration. The film is Woody Allen's first film since The Front in which he did not write or direct.
The film received mostly negative reviews, with critics focusing on the characters' arbitrary and unrealistic emotional reactions, lack of successful humor and overdone production. It grossed $19 million against a $3 million budget.
Plot
Nick, a sports lawyer, is married to psychotherapist and author Deborah. After years of being happily married, Nick reveals to Deborah that he has had an affair. She is soon shocked and requests a divorce, but later admits that she herself has been unfaithful.
Cast
Bette Midler as Deborah Fifer
Woody Allen as Nick Fifer
Bill Irwin as Mime
Daren Firestone as Sam
Rebecca Nickels as Jennifer
Paul Mazursky as Doctor Hans Clava
Marc Shaiman as Pianist
Fabio Lanzoni as Handsome Man
Production
Most of the mall scenes were filmed at the Kaufman Astoria Studios sound stages in Queens, New York. Mall scenes with elevators and escalators were filmed at the Stamford Town Center in Stamford, Connecticut.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q693721. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Scenes from a Mall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.