A liquid crystal display element including a first supporting substrate having a first orienting film for controlling liquid crystal molecules so that the molecules in adjacent orienting domains out of a plurality of orienting domains that are formed by dividing one display unit are oriented in directions that make an angle of 180.degree. with each other, a second supporting substrate having a second orienting film, and facing the first supporting substrate for controlling liquid crystal molecules so that the molecules are oriented in directions that make an angle of 90.degree. with the direction of orientation provided by the first orienting film, and setting a pretilt angle given to the molecules by the first orienting film at a value that is equal to or larger than that given to the molecules by the second orienting film. The second supporting substrate has the alignment in both regions in the same direction.