Why the translation inconsistencies?

I agree with you.
Trying to make the acronym "MMM" make sense in english (or any language for that matter) is just plain stupid by the subtitlers IMHO.
Especially since the original french of "MMM" is deliberately wrong in the first place.....

WYSYHYG

I do understand- I noticed this when I saw it today. I noticed in other places as well the subtitles shortened or omitted part of what the French actually was. Looking at translated books compared to the original I've encountered this problem as well- although it tends to be more of an issue with film than written media. It's frustrating, but it also occurs in our own language- if you have English subtitles on to a film/program in English then the people writing them do occasionally condense things. I think it's one of the pitfalls of transcribing/translating. It's good that you're noticing this, showing your proficiency in the language. Not to do the people writing the subtitles injustice: for me, even though I'm learning the language and am getting to the stage where I can understand about 75% of what's being said without a dictionary, I found the subtitles here invaluable: there were a lot of 'locutions françaises' and obscure vocab due to the topic of war.

(This is kinda off the topic, but on the other hand, do you think it's bizarre in French when an English word pops up? In the film I noticed one of the characters said 'No Man's Land' in a french accent. I find that really strange, even though English language has plenty of borrowed words too.)

If the French acronym for Les Etates Unis (Or however that may be spelled) came up on screen, would they try to find words that started with each letter or just translate it U.S.A. I tend to think they would do the latter, so what makes them think they needed to keep the middle M being a word starting with M in English. It's a different language...I think people are smart enough to figure that not all words start with the same letter in all languages, whether they know the language or not. I feel like the translators are "dumbing" it down or something.

I didn't notice the No Man's Land, but that's funny.

In the directors audio commentary of the movie- he explains .... It's so the translation consists with the three m's , putting in the marrying instead of the love.
Nobody notices the sober Indians. On tv the drunk Indians emote In books drunk Indians philosophize

I try to avoid subtitles when watching a non-English movie, even though English is my only language. I'd rather miss some of the plot and see the movie, than read, read, read, and miss the movie. But I also have a hard time reading.

I can't believe that subtitles are made the same way close captioning is, but I watch a lot of American movies on videotape with close captioning turned on, and notice LOTS of inconsistencies. I attribute it to pure slop. Sometimes I think the captioners simply take a written script and type it in and then try somewhat to synch it to the action in another process. When the movie is actually filmed, occasionally actors will deviate from the verbatum script. Yet that does not go anywhere near explaining all the mistakes in close captioning.

I'm led to believe that subtitles and close captioning are treated like unimportant afterthoughts with little quality control.

And it also makes me appreciate the quality of the dubbing of American productions into Spanish for Mexican audiences.

I don't speak French and I never gave a thought to what the middle M stood for. I actually think it's rather stupid to turn the word "loves" into "marrying" because they do not mean the same thing. I thought when Manech first carved MMM into the rocks, that he was proposing to Mathilde. Learning that he was only proclaiming his love for her completely changes the scene. I thought we witnessed the proposal. They are referred to as each other's fiancee throughout the whole film. I'm actually surprised there was no proposal scene.

Wow, so I am surprised by this. I think it was a terrible choice to switch the words in the subtitles. Anyone with a brain would be able to figure out that "love" in English perhaps starts with an M in French (even though that represents the pronounciation, not the spelling, it's not a big deal). I totally disagree with that choice. It would have made sense either way, whether you had to take a second and think about it or not. I'm totally surprised by this and wonder what other foreign films I've misunderstood because of lazy or poorly-thought out subtitle choices.

Tomorrow's just your future yesterday!

The translation in the subtitles of this film is excellent by comparison to most films subtitled in English. The English subtitles of most non-english films are terrible - way below standards of english films subtitled in French. This is not surprising. As others have implied, the US market dominates and foreign language films get very little attention in English speaking markets. Consequently the translations are often slapdash. By contrast the calibre of French subtitling of english language films can be astonishingly subtle and complex. It is a big industry. I have seen enough english language films with french subtitles and my french is just good enough to know that they must get real writers to translate because idioms are captured deftly. You notice this particularly when one or the other of the voice track or subtitles gets ahead of the other. This film had one of the more elegant translations I have seen recently.

And come on, the MMM was a significant visual device. The subtitles are an aid to understanding. Big deal that they changed a word for purposes of display to match the onscreen images.

One thing is for certain. I despise watching dubbed films and cannot understand anyone without visual impairment preferring them over subtitles. Dubbing can easily destroy the original actors' performances. The only dubbed film that I can recall not being terribly distracting was Das Boot. Probably a combination of a very careful casting and direction of the english voice actors, and the fact that English is a Germanic language. But the subtitled version was better.

The use of MMM was rather a pun. The French pronounciation of the letter "M" rather sounds like the word "aime" so perhaps it is something like the English writing "U" for "you".

However, I agree that the subtitles should have left it at "Mannech loves Mathilde" rather than "Mannech marrying Mathilde". Besides, that made him seem as if he was speaking in Caveman language. (Where are your helping verbs??) That seemed to edit the movie rather than translate.

Insanity runs in my family...it practically gallops!