Film debut for rocker Pete Doherty

A new film starring rocker Pete Doherty has premiered at the exclusive Cannes Film Festival.

The ex-Libertines frontman has been spotted wandering down la Croisette over the last few days, where the main festival building is located, as audiences prepared for the screening of his first film.

Doherty stars in Confession Of A Child Of The Century, an adaptation of French writer Alfred de Musset's autobiographical novel of the same name, alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Directed by France's Sylvie Verheyde, he appears as Octave, a young man in 19th-century France who is betrayed by his mistress and sinks into despair and debauchery.

The death of his father takes him to the country where he meets Brigitte, played by Gainsbourg, who is a young widow and ten years his elder.

Octave falls in love once more, but audiences are left wondering if he will finally have the courage to believe in his new-found passion.

Doherty, the 33-year-old former singer of The Libertines and ex-boyfriend of British supermodel Kate Moss, has had recurring problems with drugs, alcohol and driving offences and has served time in prison.

Confession Of A Child Of The Century is in the running for a prize in the Cannes festival's new talent sidebar competition, Un Certain Regard, where the jury is headed by British actor Tim Roth.