The disclosure includes a liquid crystal device, a projector and an optical compensation method of a liquid crystal device. In one embodiment, a liquid crystal device includes a liquid crystal panel having a pair of substrates, each of which has an alignment film. A vertically-aligned liquid crystal, which has liquid crystal molecules pretilted by the alignment films, is interposed between the pair of substrates and modulates light. A pair of polarizing films interposes the liquid crystal panel therebetween. A first retardation film is disposed between the pair of polarizing films and includes (i) a first substrate and (ii) a first deposited film maintaining a first refractive anisotropy and being obliquely deposited on the first substrate so that a first optical axis of the first refractive anisotropy is tilted in a direction in which a variation in characteristic of the light due to the pretilted liquid crystal molecules is canceled.