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Scenes from a Mall

1991 film by Paul Mazursky

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ693721
Source-derived summary

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.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Scenes from a Mall” is 1991 film by Paul Mazursky. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Scenes, Mall and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1991—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1991-02-22, 1991-04-11—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Scenes, Mall and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1991 film by Paul Mazursky” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

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.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Scenes from a Mall”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Scenes from a Mall primary sources, Scenes from a Mall archive and Scenes research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Scenes from a Mall”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

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.