The present invention provides a retardation element capable of ensuring that, even when the retardation element is incorporated into a display element having pixels, each pixel being a triad of red, green and blue display sections, the display element shows excellent display characteristics. A retardation film includes a glass substrate, and a liquid crystal layer made from a polymerizable liquid crystalline material, formed on an alignment layer that has been formed on top of the glass substrate. The retardation film is for use in a liquid crystal display element having pixels, each pixel being a triad of red, green and blue display sections, and the liquid crystal layer has a plurality of fine areas that have been created, by patterning, correspondingly to the display sections of the pixels in the three colors. These fine areas are made from one liquid crystalline material, and have different thicknesses so that they have different retardation values depending upon the wave range of light that passes through them.