Blue hour

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Praia da Ursa-Sintra-Portugal. A blue hour seascape seen in wide angle. Clearly seen is the zone near the sun where red and green takes precedence over blue, which fills almost the entire hemisphere. The effect is due to Rayleigh scattering

The blue hour

Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, Germany, during the blue hour

The Colosseum during the blue hour

The blue hour comes from a French expression (l'heure bleue), which refers to twilight, the period each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day (also in photography; it is considered especially flattering for people with blond hair) and because in the summer, this is often when the smell of the flowers is at their strongest.

In Scotland this time of day and the attendant light quality is known as gloaming.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] A time of innocence

The phrase is also used to refer to the Paris immediately prior to World War I, which was considered to be a time of relative innocence.

[edit] Influence in popular culture

As a result of the perceived specialness of this time, around the world there are restaurants, theatres and hotels called "L'Heure Bleue," and there is a women's perfume by Guerlain (1912) of the same name. The Norwegian rock band Madrugada (Spanish and Portuguese for early morning) were also named after this time.

[edit] Songs

The blue hour is also a common theme in popular music and the subject appears in various songs:

• Vanessa Daou - This Blue Hour
• Raise the Dragon - Blue Hour (very rare 1984 song)
• Roy Orbison - When The Blue Hour Comes
• Turin Brakes - Blue Hour
• Stephen Cummings - Blue Hour
• Andreas Vollenweider - Chanson de l'Heure Bleue (Song of the Blue Hour)
• Christian Death - The Blue Hour
• Nina Gordon - The Blue Hour
• Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends - "a time of confidence, a time of innocence"
• Radiohead - The Gloaming

[edit] Books

• a novel by T Jefferson Parker
• a book by Carolyn Forché
• the cover background of The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada volume 5
• Midnighters trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
• A novel by Kate Thompson
• "The Blueing Hours" poetry collection by Albert DeGenova

[edit] Films

• a 1991 film by director Marcel Gisler
• the first portion of the 1987 episodic film "4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle" by Éric Rohmer.
• a 2007 film starring Alyssa Milano.

[edit] Art

• "l'Heure Bleue" is a concept often expressed, in his works and in his thought, by the contemporary artist Jan Fabre. [1]

[edit] See also

• Media related to Blue hour at Wikimedia Commons
• Midnight sun
• Polar night
• Green flash
• Golden hour (photography)
• Belt of Venus

v • d • e Parts of a day Dawn • Twilight (Blue hour) • Sunrise (Terminator) • Morning • Noon • Afternoon • Evening • Sunset • Twilight • Dusk • Night • Midnight