A young woman has a perilous affair with a General from the opposing side during the Revolutionary war.
Robert and Françoise Monier make a hot air balloon to fly to the stratosphere. After a visit to Venus, they return home, but have only aged 15 days whereas 25 years have passed on Earth.
Aged penniless actors are living in a old people's home. They always talk about their past glory or failures. One day Raphael Saint-Clair comes; he has been a famous actor and had a lot of love affairs. Passions come back, and jealousies... A bitter film about aging, failure and the entertainment.
1938, France, Paris, at the Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Art ("Conservatoire Supérieur d'Art Dramatique"). The first-year entrance exams are in full swing. Many applicants, few accepted. Isabelle (Janine Darcey) is one of the few chosen. She joins former students from the second and third years, including François (Claude Dauphin) and Cécilia (Odette Joyeux). They attend the drama class run by Professor Lambertin (Louis Jouvet). The young people, passionate and eager to become comedians, clash in tumultuous love affairs, because by dint of acting, they imagine that life is a farce. François, for example, is in love with Isabelle, who also loves him, but is pursued by Cecilia, his former mistress... "Put art in your life and life in your art!"
"Altitude 3.200" asks the question and provides the premise of what would happen if a group of young people----poor, rich, discontented, bored--- were given an idyllic community in which to live. Call it a colony. Call it a village. Call it one-world. Mainly call it a futile exercise in changing human nature, mores, culture and attitudes at any altitude. For t'ain't no time before clashing personalities, petty jealousy, violence and---that old demon---love create havoc. And isn't much longer before they become re-united in the face of an avalanche that threatens to destroy them. They all return to whence they came, sadder and wiser.