The present invention provides a birefringent optical film that allows a liquid crystal display to achieve excellent contrast and a wide viewing angle and does not cause coloring of the liquid crystal display. The birefringent optical film includes at least one birefringent A-layer having a property satisfying ny.sub.a.gtoreq.nz.sub.a>nx.sub.a or nz.sub.a>ny.sub.a>nz.sub.a and at least one birefringent B-layer having a property satisfying nx.sub.b.gtoreq.ny.sub.b>nz.sub.b.