A novel retarder comprising a long transparent substrate, and up on the substrate, a first and a second optically anisotropic layers formed from a homogenously aligned rod-like liquid crystal compound and having a phase shift substantially equal to n measured and equal to &pgr;/2 respectively at a wavelength of 550 nm; and a first alignment layer having a rubbing axis defining the azimuthal direction of the homogenous alignment in the first anisotropic layer. The angle between the slow axis of the first anisotropic layer and the longitudinal direction of the transparent substrate is 75°, the angle between the slow axis of the second anisotropic layer and the longitudinal direction is 15°, the angle between the slow axis of the second anisotropic layer and the slow axis of the first anisotropic layer is 60° and the azimuthal direction of the homogenous alignment in the first anisotropic layer is substantially orthogonal to the rubbing axis of the first alignment layer.