First Hand FilmsWorld Sales will handle international sales on venerable Portuguese directorManoel de Oliveira's Venice competitor Magic Mirror.

The Zurich-basedcompany picked up the film prior to the announcement that it would compete inVenice, one of the cities where the film also partially shot.

Mirror (Espelho Magico)is about an innocent ex-con who goes to work for a wealthy woman whose greatestgoal in life is to experience a siting of the Virgin in order to ask herseveral burning questions.

It forms part ofa trilogy begun with the director's 2002 Cannes competitor The UncertaintyPrinciple (O Principio Da Incerteza). Michel Piccoli, Marisa Paredes, Leonor Silveira and RicardoTrepa star.

The 96 year oldPortuguese director has also announced that his next film will be BelleToujours, a sequel toLuis Bunuel's classic film Belle De Jour starring Catherine Deneuve.

Deneuve wasoffered the lead role in the new film but turned it down, said Oliveira, whohas a script ready to roll in France next year. Bulle Ogier (Venus BeautyInstitute) will starinstead as the older version of Severine Serizy, in the original a beautifulmarried woman who cannot sleep with her own husband but becomes a successfulprostitute by day. Ogier starred in Oliveira's 1986 French-language Mon Cas.

BelleToujours will beproduced by Portugal-based Miguel Cadilhe of Filbox, who also produced Mirror.